The president of the Acropolis Museum, Mr Pandermalis, gave a press conference on the occasion of the museum’s 8th anniversary. He spoke about the museum’s ongoing popularity given the 1,475,022 visitors it had received in the last year.
To celebrate the anniversary, a large screen has been installed on the ground floor of the museum which will feature videos of seven large caves nestling on the foot of the Acropolis where Apollo, Aphrodite, Pan and other gods and Nymphs were worshiped.
When asked about reunification efforts, Mr Pandermalis confirmed that educating the global public on this matter is paramount and he believes that once completed, the three-dimensional scans of the Parthenon Frieze and Metopes will help the public understand the importance of the Parthenon Sculptures as a whole.
Speaking about what makes the Acropolis Museum special, Mr Pandermalis explained that it is a thematic museum based on its own excavations of the area and what sets it apart from other museums is that it can be certain of the origin of the items on display as opposed to other museums who often receive donated items with a questionable past.
Mr Pandermalis also confirmed that, pending approval, work will be underway to open the underground area of the museum, partially visible today through the glass floors, to all visitors. The project is estimated to be completed in two years. You can see part of this underground area in the video guide to the Acropolis Museum below:
As part of the museum’s ongoing policy to support other institutions and promote its own exhibits, the Acropolis Museum has loaned items to the National Archaeological Museum of Athens, the State Historical Museum in Moscow, as well as the Onassis Cultural Centre in New York as part of an exhibition titled A World of Emotions Ancient Greece, 700 BC – 200 AD. In December of 2016 Mr Pandermalis visited the Shanghai Museum to negotiate an exchange of exhibits as well as other activities scheduled for the end of 2017.
Press release of events on the museum’s 8th anniversary
On Tuesday 20 June 2017, the Acropolis Museum’s opening anniversary, eight years of operation are completed during which the Museum received over eleven million local and international visitors that passed through its doors and enjoyed its exhibits. The Museum publicly expresses its thanks to all of them.
On this day, the Museum will celebrate its 8th birthday with the presentation of a video about the Acropolis caves and the findings from these caves, at the Museum ground floor.
At 9pm, the Orchestra of the Center of Arts & Culture of Dion will perform favorite Greek songs in the Museum’s entrance courtyard. The performance will be led by the conductor Nikos Patris. Soloists will be Vassilis Lekkas, Alexandra Gravas, Babis Velissarios and Filio Servou.
The Museum exhibition areas and the restaurant will be open from the morning until midnight and entry will be free from 8pm onwards.