Acropolis Museum

President Prokopis Pavlopoulos today demanded the return of the Parthenon Marbles from the British Museum and blasted Lord Elgin's hacking off of the magnificent sculptures as an act of cultural vandalism.

Greece's president called on Monday for Britain to free the Parthenon marbles from the "murky prison" of its national museum, upping the rhetoric in a near 200-year-old campaign for the sculptures' return.

In celebration of Greek Independence Day, the Acropolis Museum invites visitors to take in its permanent collections with free admission from 9 a.m. to 6 p.m and to participate in tours of the galleries with its archaeologists. The tours are in Greek and start at noon, 1 p.m., 2 p.m., 3 p.m. and 4 p.m.

President of Bolivia Evo Morales seen during a visit at the Acropolis Museum in Athens on Friday. Morales also met with Greek Prime MInister Alexis Tsipras during a rare trip to Europe. [EPA]

Entrance to the Acropolis Museum will be free of charge for all visitors from 09:00 until 18:00 on March 25, a national holiday that commemorates the start of the Greek Revolution against Ottoman rule in 1821.
Visitors will have the opportunity to participate in tours of the Museum's galleries that will feature surprise stops and various discussions with archaeologists and curators.

As part of an ongoing initiative to examine the tribulations of the Parthenon sculptures, the Acropolis Museum has invited two respected scholars of the Ottoman Archives, Professor Zeynep Aygen and historian Orhan Sakin.

In response to recent remarks by British Museum director Hartwig Fischer that the Parthenon Marbles will never be returned to Greece, Dame Janet Suzman, chair of the British Committee for the Reunification of the Parthenon Marbles, insisted on Saturday they are in the wrong space and in need of the Attic light and blue skies.

The British Museum is not the legal owner of the Parthenon Marbles and therefore the long-running dispute with Greece over their fate could only be resolved with their unconditional repatriation and not with a lending plan, the director of the Acropolis Museum, Dimitrios Pandermalis, reportedly told German public radio on Wednesday.

In partnership with Beijing's Palace Museum, the Acropolis Museum presents "Forbidden City: The Private Rooms of Emperor Qianlong." The show comprises 162 exhibits from the private rooms of 18th century Emperor Qianlong in his early years before assuming the throne. Qianlong was also a poet, calligrapher and collector of Chinese art.

Greek President Prokopis Pavlopoulos referred on Monday to broadening international support for the return of the Parthenon Marbles to Greece during a visit to the capital's Acropolis Museum which was built to house the sculptures, currently in the British Museum.