Old Acropolis Museum to be renovated and reopened
Greece's Culture and Sports ministry on Friday approved a proposal to renovate and reopen the old Acropolis Museum which remains closed since 2009 and is located next to the Parthenon temple, on top of the Acropolis Hill.
The plan includes refurbishing the interior of the building and turning it into a modern venue, open to visitors, where inscriptions and scattered architectural parts which are now exposed to the elements will be stored and exhibited.
The museum will also exhibit material from its record of older restorations and will include a conservation lab visible to visitors.
According to the proposal, the shell of the building dating from 1874 and with today's form since 1964 after new plans by Patroklos Karandinos, will remain in its current form.
The renovations will limit the construction facilities and the storage containers now surrounding the building by more than 40 pct, the ministry said.
Despite the fact that the Council of Modern Monuments has not declared the old museum building as listed, the secretary of the ministry Lina Mendoni, who made the initial proposal to utilize the empty building, said that "to protect a building you don't have to declare it as listed, much more so when it has the protection of an archaeological site like the Acropolis."
