After sitting for some 2,500 years on the hill the Acropolis tops in central Athens, the Acropolis sculptures, after surviving weathering, war and looting by the likes of the British Lord Elgin are now being removed for safe keeping - into a new museum purposelly built to house them.

The sculptures, which for years have lain haphazzardly around the Parthenon, weigh up to 2.5 tons each and were carved in the 6th and 5th centuries B.C. to decorate the Parthenon and other Acropolis temples.

The new glass-and-concrete museum at the foot of the hill will house all Acropolis finds when it opens in early 2008.

The sculptures will begin to be moved this September.

Word has it that a special room in the museum has been reserved for the inevitably return of the Parthenon Stones (a k a Elgin Marbles) that are now domiciled in the British Museum after the British Lord Elgin stole them from the Acropolis site - actually bribed the occupying Turks into 'selling' them to him and ferreting them back to London where they remain as purloined masterpieces of Greek national heritage.

Greece has vociferously demanded their return but on deaf British ears who insist they remain in the British Museum. someday surely this madness will end and the Parthenon Stones will be returned to Athens and become the pieces-des-resistances of the new museum.

Pal,

I am certain you have been around long enough to have heard the "counter" argument that if Lord Elgin hadn't "removed" those pieces for "safekeeping" they would have disappeared entirely, laid around and mouldered, etc., etc.

What is the truth? Who knows.

When we went to Athens in 1987 there was some sort of crane stuck in the middle of the place during the "restoration" work and we were told it would be gone "soon."

I wonder if it is still there.

I often wonder if any of this will ever get finished.

<I am certain you have been around long enough to have heard the "counter" argument that if Lord Elgin hadn't "removed" those pieces for "safekeeping" they would have disappeared entirely, laid around and mouldered, etc., etc>

yes of course that's the usual hackneyed English retort - much as they said about the Scottish Throne stone they recently returned to Edinburg Castle.

i agree with the statement but it doesn't make a hill of beans difference about whether they should be returned or not - of course they should, with Athens giving UK a big thank you for help preserving them.

What if Napoleon had taken the English coronation stone (if there is one i think there is) and put it in the Louvre for 'safe-keeping' - the Brits would of course want it back.

There is simply NO justification for keeping Elgin's purloined stones anymore.

I am not plannig to get into a pissing contest with you about whether or not the things should or should not be returned.

If you re-read my comments you'll see that I purposely did NOT broach that subject because I didn't think it was warranted.

Thanks again for posting the update.

<<<When we went to Athens in 1987 there was some sort of crane stuck in the middle of the place during the "restoration" work and we were told it would be gone "soon.">>>

Dukey, I lived outside of Athens when they put that crane up, I was 21yrs old.
It is due to come down either this or next year I'm certain.
I'm 53yrs old .
Regards, Walter

Like in Italy where they say the scaffolding on churches is there so long it becomes considered to be a part of the facade.