A long-awaited and ambitious plan to expand and upgrade the National Archaeological Museum of Athens was finally unveiled on Wednesday evening, with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis himself presenting the main architectural and spatial study for the project.
The incumbent center-right prime minister, with an eye to general elections in the first half of this year, said the study and proposed works fulfilled the primary conditions set forth by his government, and especially the culture ministry and related departments, namely, a dramatic increase in state-of-the-art exhibition space.
“…Given that today we exhibit only 10 percent of the artifacts and objects in our warehouses,” Mitsotakis said, while adding that Greece’s most important museum records only a figure of slightly more than 500,000 visitors on an annual basis, “when it hosts an incredible wealth of the world’s cultural legacy…I believe this will change as a result of implementing this very visionary plan that we’ve presented tonight.”
Mitsotakis said his government aims to finance all necessary studies through private grants, with the actual construction of the new museum – next to the current one – and surrounding environment funded by national and European coffers.
Speaking after Mitsotakis, Culture Minister Lina Mendoni, a trained archaeologist with an expertise on the Athens Acropolis, said the museum’s expansion and renovation will serve to rejuvenate a historic corner of central Athens, as well as returning it to the top echelon of national archaeological museums around the world.
The project also includes the renovation of the current National Archaeological Museum
“Today marks the end of the first difficult, admittedly, cycle for implementation of the project, which you yourself envisioned, embraced and personally oversaw. It more-or-less coincides with the completion of your first term (as prime minister). Our view is now already turning to the future, for a second term (in office)…at the end of your second four-year term the National Archaeological Museum will be utterly transformed,” she said, in reply to Mitsotakis.
The culture ministry early last month announced the winning proposal for the project with the architectural practice of David Chipperfield Architects and Alexandros N. Tombazis & Associates selected by members of a ministry-appointed international committee.
The project also includes the renovation of the current National Archaeological Museum, as well as an underground extension to the state-owned Acropole Palace building, a preserved modern monument and a leading example of the art nouveau style in Greece.
The latter building lies across from Patission Boulevard, which runs in front of the current museum.
The eight-member committee, which included Mendoni, was comprised of another three Greek nationals and four foreign experts, namely, archaeologists Pierre B. Ducrey and Louis Godart, historian and Lowgill Publishing chief Christopher Hudson, as well as architect Meejin Yoon.
Funding for the draft architectural plan was provided to the ministry by the Nikolas S. and Irini Lemos family.
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