National Museum of Archaeology Athens [antikvár]

INTRODUCTION This book of particularly striking photos of the most important exhibits in the National Museum at Athens is not intended to be a substitute for a museum catalogue. Its aim is to stimulate the visitor's recollections and to give others an idea of what the Museum contains. Introductory comments summarise the history of the Museum and indicate its importance. We have tried to give a brief outline of the historical developments pertaining to each monument illustrated, so that the lay visitor will have no difficulty in grasping connections. Serious students of Greek art are referred to the select bibliography at the end. The history of the National Museum at Athens begins with the history of Modern Greece, i. e. at the end of the Wars of Liberation against Turkey from 1821 to 1829. When the Greeks rose against the Turks, their national consciousness was deeply stirred by their realization of the greatness of their heritage. It was therefore natural that the re-birth of national feeling should be accompanied by the assumption of responsibility for the care of ancient monuments. To collect and maintain them in good condition became one of the noblest aims of the new State. In 1829 a central museum for finds from all parts of Greece was established at Aegina. At the same time an end was put to haphazard excavation, and the export of works of art was prohibited as far as possible. In 1834 most of the contents of this museum were transferred to the new capital Athens (formerly Nauplia), where they were housed in the Theseion. As finds continued to increase, the collection was accommodated first in Hadrian's Library, then in the Tower of Winds and subsequently in the Propylaea and in other buildings, old and new. The sculptures of the Acropolis found a final home in the museum there. The present National Museum building was presented to the nation in 1874 by Bernadakis. The extension on Patissia Street was completed in 1889 and was enlarged again later. The new building, erected to the east of the old one, was started in 1925 and completed in 1939, just before the outbreak of the second world war. In order to protect the works of art from the dangers and destructions of the war, all sculptures and other treasures were carefully stored in the basements of the Museum and elsewhere. After the war, the reinstallation and rearrangement of the statues in the Museum's halls took many years. In 1963, at the time of the first publication of this book, most of the statues were exhibited in temporary places, while a great number of the Museum's halls, as the entire right wing, were closed to the public. The various changes effected gradually for the installation of the statues in their final places and the reopening of almost all the halls (those of the new building are still closed) have necessitated the publication of a new, entirely revised, edition, for the presentation of many works of art, which previously were not exhibited. Today, the National Museum at Athens contains one of the largest collections of historic Greek monuments. It is distinguished by its comprehensive selection of Cycladic and Mycenaean treasures and, although the archaic, classical and hel-