ATHENS – A new museum beneath the Acropolis Museum was opened to the public on Tuesday, with the President of the Hellenic Republic, Katerina Sakellaropoulou, in attendance.
The “Museum beneath the Museum” offers visitors significantly enhanced opportunities to understand and interpret the material remains and history of an entire neighborhood of Ancient Athens. This neighborhood was discovered during the excavations conducted for the construction of the Acropolis Museum and the Acropolis Metro Station in Athens.
The Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, expressed her joy and pride for those who contributed decisively, not only to the creation and reconstruction of the Acropolis Museum but also to its establishment as an internationally renowned cultural organization. The museum is recognized globally as one of the top and most popular of its kind, earning full recognition from experts and the admiration of hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.
Mendoni extensively addressed the campaign for the reunification of the Parthenon Sculptures: “With the establishment, construction, and operation of the Acropolis Museum,” she said, “our country has refuted the sole, in the past, true and strong argument of the British that Greece lacked suitable and worthy hosting infrastructure. It is now widely, almost universally, and internationally accepted that Greece supports its argument for the reunification of the Sculptures with tangible evidence of its strong will and practical capability to protect, preserve, enhance, and manage them with sound scientific and technical methods.
"For decades, we have been implementing an exemplary and model project of conservation, restoration, and re-erection of all the monuments of the Acropolis, including the Parthenon. For the past 15 years, it has been absolutely clear that the argument of the British Museum not only does not hold but has been completely reversed following the revelations of recent years,” stressed Mendoni, adding, “This museum constitutes the optimal physical and conceptual framework for the display, interpretation, and understanding of these masterpieces.”