Athens News Agency: News in English, 05-06-15

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] Upper gallery re-opens at National Archaeological Museum

[01] Upper gallery re-opens at National Archaeological Museum

The upper galleries in the museum, built during WWII, had been shut down for renovation and repair after suffering extensive damage in the earthquake that devastated Athens in 1999.

According to Deputy Culture Minister Petros Tatoulis, the new section is the "showpiece" of the museum, as well as having been repaired in a phenomenally short space of time by the standards of international museums.

"By contrast, repairs to a much smaller space in New York's Metropolitan Museum will take a total of six years," he noted.

The cost of repairing and redesigning the gallery space came to 9,950,845 euros, while the cost of re-exhibiting the museum's collection was 5,700,000 euros, he said.

The museum has also received an additional three million euros to complete renovation and repair work on its storage space in the basement and to redesign other important exhibitions, such as the Vlastos collection, which will be put on the display in the unused areas of the Numismatic Museum.

The museum's collection of bronzes numbers 1,670 items, its pottery and minor arts collection numbers 2,400 items and the sculpture collection 1,000 items.

Among the museum's future plans is a major temporary exhibition on "Clothing and Cosmetics in Antiquity", envisaged for 2006.

The National Archaeological Museum in Athens boasts one of the richest collections of original ancient artifacts in bronze in the world, including the statues of Poseidon of Artemision, the Youth of Antikythera and the Boy from Marathon. Also considered important worldwide is the pottery and minor arts collections, with its huge selection of vases.

The Thera gallery is unique, with its huge frescoes dating from the 16th century B.C. found at Akrotiri on Santorini, with their stunning colours perfectly preserved by the ash produced by a massive volcanic explosion that destroyed the flourishing civilisation that lived on the island at the time.

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