New design accepted by Greek government

The results of the second competition to design the New Acropolis Museum have been announced by the Greek government. The competition was won by Bernard Tschumi, a Swiss-born architect now based in New York. His design includes a glass structure which will one day house the Parthenon Marbles when the British government is finally persuaded to return those in its possession to Greece.

The Greek Embassy in London said: "With this project, which does cost a lot of money, we're simply manifesting in a practical way our commitment to completing this project in the expectation that the Parthenon sculptures will grace the new rooms of the museum in Athens. This shows our determination to forge ahead."

The winning design was chosen from a shortlist of 12. Construction will begin next spring, and the architect says that he is confident of completing the museum in time for the 2004 Olympic Games which will be held in Athens.

The winning design for the museum, which will be located 300 yards from the Parthenon, includes a rectangular glass gallery
that will display the Parthenon Marbles with exactly the same dimensions they once occupied on the Parthenon.

The upper glass gallery will be called the Parthenon Hall and will remain empty until the section of the original frieze still in the possession of the British Museum has been returned to Greece.

When archaeologists began excavating the proposed site of the Museum they uncovered an early Christian town. This caused a dilemma. It is important to keep the museum as close to the Acropolis as possible, but any area near the Acropolis is almost certain to produce important archaeological finds when fully excavated.

Finally it was decided to leave the archaeological finds where they are, as exhibits, and to build the museum above them. This secured the site for the Archaeological Museum. The site is unique as the museum would be facing the Parthenon directly. At the same time it would be possible to preserve and display the great wealth of archaeological material from other periods.

Unfortunately there has been a lot of controversy over the decision to build the museum above the archaeological remains. For that reason we reprint below a press release from the Chairman of the British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles who recently visited the site.

THE NEW ACROPOLIS MUSEUM

Statement by Professor Snodgrass, Professor Emeritus of Classical Archaeology, University of Cambridge

" The new Acropolis Museum represents a notably fine and acclaimed design, destined to become world-famous on its completion in 2004. Furthermore, construction is being accompanied by an equally rare degree of sensitivity and respect for the ancient structures brought to light in the preparation of its site.

On 16th July, together with the Vice-Chairman (Mr. Christopher Price) and the Secretary (Mrs. Eleni Cubitt) of the British Committee for the Restitution of the Parthenon Marbles, and Executive Director (Mr. David Hill) I was given a conducted tour of the site of the new Museum by the Director of the project, Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis. The main focus of the visit was on the archaeological excavations which will underlie the new building.

Besides being impressively preserved, these remains have the added interest of belonging mainly to the later Roman Imperial and Early Christian eras which, in Greece as in many Mediterranean countries, have been less fully studied than their predecessors. This makes it particularly fortunate that they are to receive such special treatment. A small sector of the site, in accordance with standard archaeological practice with well-preserved but fragile architecture, will be back-filled with loose earth. Another sector will be open to the air, but covered by a projecting canopy which forms part of the design of the new building. But the largest sector of all will become one of the showpieces of the Museum itself, viewed from above through glass panels in the floor of the ramp by which visitors climb up to the galleries. Bernard Tschumi's winning design for the building places it on a series of upright supports, and these will be carefully located so as to avoid piercing ancient floors or walls.

Two days before our visit, a series of alarmist stories had begun to appear in the British press, to the effect that, by a piece of 'cultural vandalism', the remains underlying the Museum were being 'destroyed'; and that a different site should have been chosen for it all along.

Remarkably, it appears that the Athens correspondent of the Guardian, with whom the story seems to have originated, had not visited the site or even, checked the facts with the Director; nor, equally remarkably, had the Athens-based archaeologists who were the primary sources for the story. The correspondent preferred to rely instead on "video clips seen by the Guardian".

This is like sneaking into a hospital, catching a glimpse of a delicate surgical operation through the window of the operating theatre, and then accusing the surgeons of murder."

Note: The pictures on this page are from May 2002 and may not show the final design of the museum.