[MSN] Slow Trip, Downhill: 300 ancient, and fragile, Greek statues to be moved to new Acropolis museum

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Slow Trip, Downhill: 300 ancient, and fragile, Greek statues to be moved to new Acropolis museum
Friday, July 13, 2007
ATHENS, Greece

Many of Greece’s most valued ancient statues are wearing chains and padded vests, ready for a rare outing.

Culture Ministry officials demonstrated yesterday how more than 300 statues from the Acropolis are being packed for a move this fall to a new museum being built at the bottom of the hill.

Statues from the Parthenon and other temples, up to 2,600 years old and weighing up to 2.5 tons, are being fitted with padded harnesses and will be lowered by chains and pulleys into styrofoam-filled boxes made of plywood and metal.

Once packed, they will be moved about 300 yards by crane from a cramped museum on the Acropolis to the new glass-and-concrete museum designed by U.S. architect Bernard Tschumi.

“This is an operation which requires great care.... We will work long hours and through holidays,” supervising engineer Costas Zambas said.

Among items requiring special attention during the transfer are four Caryatids - stone columns sculpted in the shape of women - as well as older limestone artifacts created before marble became widely used.

“The Caryatids require special attention.... They are built with good material but have been strained by prolonged exposure to atmospheric pollution and other factors and require great care when being packed and unpacked,” Zambas said.

The old Acropolis museum was closed last month ahead of the transfer, surprising many Acropolis visitors who are turned away from the site.

The transfer is expected to take about six weeks and cost about $3.5 million. “It will take longer if there is bad weather. The operation will stop when there is rain or strong winds,” Zambas said.

The new Acropolis museum is scheduled to open in early 2008, and will include exhibition space for the Parthenon Marbles collection - also known as the Elgin Marbles - which Greece is demanding be returned from the British Museum in London.

It will also allow the public to view artifacts that have been kept in storage because of lack of space.

Zambas said that the new space would allow visitors to appreciate the artworks properly.

“This move is necessary mainly because these masterpieces must be appreciated from a distance as well as from close up.... The old museum gave the visitor no distance, and it was very crowded in the summer.”

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