As the New Acropolis Museum approaches its completion and anticipated opening at the end of 2008, international visitors will be provided with the opportunity to have a preview of the “new Athens destination” and what is to come.  Athens International Airport “Eleftherios Venizelos” and the Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum have joined together to inform visitors of the opening of this major international event with a small and innovative exhibition at the Airport. The main objective of the exhibition is to alert airport visitors to the impending opening of this international landmark in the city of Athens, and in the coming months provide a multimedia update on the progress and development of the mounting of the Museum’s exhibition programme and services, with regular changes and updates to the audio and visual materials on display.

The exhibition The New Acropolis Museum: A destination in the making at the Departures Level of the Main Terminal Building is the first stage of this exhibition and briefs visitors of the Museum’s current state of play.  A photographic presentation of some of the Museum’s exhibits and the completed Museum building and an a 4 minute DVD presentation of the Museum’s construction through to its completion, presents images of the emergence of this impressive 21st century building, its completed galleries with their predominance of natural light, footage of the move of the first exhibit from the old to the new Museum using a three crane system, and the transport of the beautiful Caryatids of the Erectheion.

A cast copy of section of the west frieze of the Parthenon (C. 440 BC.), a continuous sculpted relief band of a length of 160 meters and a height of one meter that ran along the walls of the temple and the front and rear colonnade of its cella, is also presented in the exhibition.  The sections of the original frieze held in Athens will be a key exhibit in the glass walled Parthenon Gallery that crowns the Museum building. A cast copy of a Kore, a marble statue of a young girl dedicated to the Goddess Athena (480 BC) will welcome visitors to the exhibition and is typical of the exhibits that will be seen in the huge multi-columned archaic gallery of the New Acropolis Museum.

On the occasion of the opening of the exhibition at the airport, the Chairman of the Board of Directors of Athens International Airport S.A., Prof. Kostis Vaitsos, stated: “By organizing cultural events and exhibitions visited by millions of airport passengers and visitors, Athens International Airport consistently provides reflections of modern Greece as well as of the Greek cultural heritage. The creation of an exhibition dedicated to the unique event – from a historical, cultural and national point of view – of the New Acropolis Museum, underlines the double role of Athens International Airport as an efficient entreprise as well as a public service entity with high corporate responsibility objectives.”

The exhibition is open on a 24 hrs basis, on Departures Level of the Main Terminal Building (Entrance 3 – next to the permanent Exhibition of Archaeological Findings from the Airport Area). The exhibition is in the airport’s public area, accessible for all airport visitors.

For more information / relevant material:

Niki Dollis - Public Relations
Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum
Tel.: +30 210 9241043 
Fax: +30 210 9241643
E-mail: oanmapr@oanma.gr
Website: www.newacropolismuseum.gr

The exhibition “The New Acropolis Museum” at Athens International Airport
The exhibition “The New Acropolis Museum” at Athens International Airport	Photo from the arrival of the Ministers in the area of the exhibition “New Acropolis Museum: A destination in the making” at Athens International Airport	Τhe Chairman of the Board of Directors of Athens International Airport S.A., Prof. Kostis Vaitsos, at the podium during the opening of the exhibition. Also, from left to right, the President of the Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum, Prof. Dimitris Pantermalis, the Minister of Culture, Michalis Liapis, the Minister of Transport and Communications, Kostas Hatzidakis, and the CEO of Athens International Airport, Dr. Yiannis Paraschis. Also present (in the photo, behind the President of the Organization for the Construction of the New Acropolis Museum), the Prefect of Eastern Attica, Mr. Leonidas Kouris.