Thera Gallery Reopens its Doors
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THE NATIONAL Archaeological Museum's Thera gallery, containing 16th century BC frescoes, and the revamped exhibitions of bronzes, pottery and minor artwork opened their doors to the public again after two-and-a-half years on the night of June 15.
The upper galleries of the museum, built during WWII, had been shut down for renovation and repair after suffering extensive damage in the big earthquake that rocked Athens in 1999.
According to Deputy Culture Minister Petros Tatoulis, these galleries are the "showpiece" of the museum, and they were repaired in a phenomenally short 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 exhibiting the museum's collection again is 5,700,000 euros, he said.
The museum has also received an additional 3,000,000 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 has 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 artefacts in bronze in the world, including the statues of Poseidon of Artemision, the Youth of Antikythera and the Boy from Marathon. Also considered important world-wide is the pottery and minor arts collections, with their huge selection of vases.
The Thera gallery is unique, with its huge frescoes dating from the 16th century BC found at Akrotiri on Santorini, with their stunning colours perfectly preserved by the ash produced in a massive volcanic explosion that destroyed the flourishing civilisation living on the island at the time.
- Source: ATHENS NEWS
- Date of publication of article: 17/06/2005
- Page: A02
- Article code: C13135A022
- Link to the Athens News website: http://www.athensnews.gr
- Link to the present article: http://www.athensnews.gr/athweb/nathens.print_unique?e=C&f=13135&m=A02&aa=2&eidos=S
2012-05-21