The New Acropolis Museum in Athens, Greece, has attracted more attention from the world media than any topic other than the economy, Panos Livadas, Greece’s secretary general of information, told GlobalAtlanta.

The museum, built near the 2,500 year-old Parthenon Temple, is scheduled to open June 20. 

“From Bejing to Washington, from Cairo to Scandinavia, we’re taking hundreds if not thousands of questions per year about the New Acropolis Museum,” Dr. Livadas said in an interview at the Doubletree Hotel Atlanta Buckhead.

The intense media interest will likely translate into more tourists for Greece, just as the 2004 Olympics in Athens led to a long-lasting boost in visitors, said Dr. Livadas.

“Sometimes they say that if it’s not bad news, it’s no news,” he said. “In this environment, stories that have to do with conflict, friction and war are dominant stories. But if you look behind that you realize that the bigger parts of these societies are interested in these cultural developments.”

Construction on the new $170 million museum was launched in November 2004. It will have 150,000 square feet of exhibition space and 4,000 artifacts, 10 times more than the 19th-century museum it is replacing.

“The new museum is the result of many years of work by global experts, most importantly Greek experts and archeologists,” said Dr. Livadas.

The building was designed by New York-based architect Bernard Tschumi in collaboration with Greek architect Michalis Photiadis. It overlooks the excavation of the ancient ruins of Makriyianni. Visitors walking up the ramp to the second floor will be able to look down on the excavations. Standing in the museum’s rectangular glass gallery, they will be able to look out at the nearby Parthenon.

“It’s a very special museum because it’s related to one place,” Dimitrios Pandermalis, president of the new museum, told GlobalAtlanta in a filmed interview last summer following a presentation in Atlanta at the High Museum. “Acropolis for many centuries was and is a symbol of classical arts and democracy, for ancient Greek philosophy and classical architecture. The purpose of the museum is to present, in an appropriate way, some of the masterpieces of classical art. It is a walk through our past.”

The museum is the latest sign of Greece’s progress since the end of the Cold War, said Dr. Livadas. Greece’s location has historically made it a focal point for conflict, said the secretary general.

“For centuries, this part of the world was called the powder keg of Europe because the greatest wars started here,” he said. “During the second half of the 20th century, all of our northern neighbors belonged to another bloc- the Eastern bloc- the communist bloc.” 

Not until the 1990s, with the collapse of the Soviet Union, did the tension ease between Greece and its northern neighbors, such as Albania and Bulgaria. 

“After the fall of the Iron Curtain, for the first time this whole neighborhood shared the same vision as Greece,” said Dr. Livadas. “We all share the same vision about an open economy, an open society.”

There have been tangible economic benefits for Greece as the former Eastern bloc countries became a market for outside investments, he said.

“We are the Number 1 investing power in most of the countries,” said Dr. Livadas. 

In Greece, exports increased, unemployment dropped and the country was chosen as a hub for major energy projects such as a pipeline which will take Russian and Caspian oil from the Bulgarian port of Burgas to the Greek port of Alexandroupoli.

The 2004 Athens Olympics, which attracted 7 million visitors and was highlighted by many public improvements, including an expanded subway system, permanently changed world perceptions of Greece, said Dr. Livadas.

“We were repositioned, let’s say, on the global map of perceptions,” he said. “Before the Olympics, the stereotype about Greece had to do with human emotions - the sun, the sea, hospitality, things like that. After the Olympics, this stereotype was enriched with attributes that had to do with human reason. They started considering Greece as a country that could deliver on challenges of great caliber.”

With the opening of the new museum, Greece will have completed another big challenge and will reap more rewards, predicted Dr. Livadas.

“When you have a landmark like the Acropolis, the museum is going to boost this existing momentum,” he said. “I think it’s going to be a huge development.”

For more on the New Acropolis Museum, click here .

View Global Atlanta’s interview with the museum’s president here.
 

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