New Acropolis Museum with open wounds

In spring 2009, the new Acropolis Museum in Athens, which was originally supposed to be ready in time for the 2004 Olympics, will open its doors to the public. Salvatore Settis, Italy's most well-known culture preserver and president of the National Culture Council, has visited the museum and calls for the return of 56 sculptures that Lord Elgin snatched and brought to England in the 19th century. "The centre-piece is the Parthenon hall. ... The remaining original works are exhibited along with reproductions of those that were taken to London. The play of light and colours of the copies point to open wounds and are like a silent but urgent cry for the return of the Elgin sculptures that the British Museum calls its own. It refuses to return them to their country of origin. ... Occupying the place of honour is the fragment of the Parthenon Temple which was returned from Heidelberg University's classical collection in 2006."

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