The Acropolis Museum was opened to the public in 2009 and was built to replace the original museum that had sat on the site since the original foundations were laid in 1865 (30 years after the Turkish garrison withdrew from the Acropolis.
Integral to this decision to build the museum was the desire to build a space that was equipped to house and conserve the artifacts from the Acropolis and to reunite the Parthenon sculptures. The museum has five permanent galleries to do this – The Gallery of the Slopes of the Acropolis, The Archaic Gallery, The Parthenon Gallery, Propylaia, Athena Nike and Erechtheion Gallery and the 5th century BC to the 5th century AD Gallery.
The completed museum does have the amenities to house the sculptures if they are …show more content…
Further, there are still questions about the legality of his actions (Beard BBC 2011), however even if there weren’t he was given permission by the Turks to remove them, not the Greeks, which in my mind makes this situation unique and makes the Greeks desire to have the marbles returned more compelling.
Sharon Macdonald posits that museums recontextualise objects when they form collections, by removing them from their original context and moving them to their new context – the collection (MacDonald 2011: 82). The removal of the sculptures has changed their context and for over the past 200 years they have belonged in their new context at the British Museum. Like it or not, they are now historically rooted in the British Museum as well as Athens (Beard BBC 2011).
Last year Greece decided not to pursue legal action against the British for the return of the sculptures. Instead they think that the best way forward is through diplomacy, however this doesn’t seem likely as the British Museum has declined several offers by UNESCO to mediate (Alderman NY Times
Integral to this decision to build the museum was the desire to build a space that was equipped to house and conserve the artifacts from the Acropolis and to reunite the Parthenon sculptures. The museum has five permanent galleries to do this – The Gallery of the Slopes of the Acropolis, The Archaic Gallery, The Parthenon Gallery, Propylaia, Athena Nike and Erechtheion Gallery and the 5th century BC to the 5th century AD Gallery.
The completed museum does have the amenities to house the sculptures if they are …show more content…
Further, there are still questions about the legality of his actions (Beard BBC 2011), however even if there weren’t he was given permission by the Turks to remove them, not the Greeks, which in my mind makes this situation unique and makes the Greeks desire to have the marbles returned more compelling.
Sharon Macdonald posits that museums recontextualise objects when they form collections, by removing them from their original context and moving them to their new context – the collection (MacDonald 2011: 82). The removal of the sculptures has changed their context and for over the past 200 years they have belonged in their new context at the British Museum. Like it or not, they are now historically rooted in the British Museum as well as Athens (Beard BBC 2011).
Last year Greece decided not to pursue legal action against the British for the return of the sculptures. Instead they think that the best way forward is through diplomacy, however this doesn’t seem likely as the British Museum has declined several offers by UNESCO to mediate (Alderman NY Times