On Friday 20 June, the exhibition areas and restaurant will remain open from 8 a.m. until 12 midnight, admission to the Museum will be reduced to 3 euros for all visitors.

At 21:30 a music concert by Leon of Athenswill take place at the entrance courtyard of the Museum. Visitors will have the chance to listen to their favourite songs from the two albums released so far (‘Futrue’ and ‘Global’) and remixes.

Timoleon Veremis, better known on the artistic circuit as Leon, was born in London 28 years ago. He began to dabble in music from a very young age and in 2010, came out with his debut record - 'Futrue'. This year, Leon of Athens with a brand new band, launched 'Global'.

For the Acropolis Museum annual report, please click here

A message fromDimitrios Pandermalis, President of the Acropolis Museum

On Friday, the 20th June 2014 the new Acropolis Museum celebrates its first five years of operation. The over 6.5 million visitors in that period and the satisfaction commonly expressed about the quality of its services is public testament to the Museum's contribution. It is no accident that one in four visitors has visited the Museum on two or more occasions in the past year.

A unique achievement internationally has been the Museum's ability to totally self-fund its operations since opening - indeed during five most difficult years of the economic crisis. Careful management by the Museum's administration, targeted choices around expenditure, the continuous improvement and expansion of the permanent exhibition, the intense efforts of staff and the warm reception from the public all contributed to this result. We hope that the apparent recovery of the national economy will secure the necessary resources to enable even more rapid development of the Museum.           

In the past year significant success was also achieved with work on the collections. The program focusing on the colours of the sculptures was greeted with enthusiasm by both visitors and experts. The diverse reconstructions of details on marble copies, on cast copies and with digital modelling allowed visitors to obtain a complete picture of the ancient sculptures and to creatively stimulate their interest.

In the Parthenon Gallery the three dimensional scanning of the frieze provided its first results through four clear and impressive digital applications that highlight the original carving process of the frieze, its enrichment with bronze attachments, its violent separation and its digital restoration. New technologies are increasingly finding their place in the Museum galleries offering essential tools to aid the understanding of the great exhibits. The Museum is consistently conscious of the need to maintain the necessary balance between the authentic exhibit and the digital image it offers to visitors.

The production of exact cast copies of original works in the collection continued with particular care, and with an avid interest in the accurate presentation of detail and in some cases, the remaining traces of exhibit polychromy. A successful attempt to produce precise reduced scale copies was made, in this way making large exhibits accessible to the public.

In its five years of operation the Museum has serviced large crowds with an on-average of over 3000 visitors daily. Staff met the challenge through continuous vigilance and by making a sustained effort to maintain high standards of service. For the Museum, it is particularly important that visitors are comfortable; that they develop their own personal experience in the galleries and that they feel personally welcomed in spite of comprising the individual members of a crowd.

In the first six months of 2014 during the Greek Presidency of the European Union, the Museum received a large number of political leaders, senior officials and support staff to whom our ever obliging staff presented the Museum's emblematic works. The Museum's facilities and services were made available to support the many meetings, conferences and seminars of the Presidency, as well as our restaurant with its spectacular views of the Rock of the Acropolis.

In its first five years of life the Acropolis Museum has fulfilled our country's high expectations and succeeded in being recognized amongst the three best museums in the world. Now it requires the State, to recognize its contribution and to address the key administrative issues associated with its operation, so that it can continue to develop without impediment.

18.06.2014