If you missed the live broadcast of the opening ceremony of the New Acropolis Museum, you could watch the slide show by the New York Times, and a youtube video explaining what’s inside this museum.
Visiting Details
Hours:
The Museum is open 8.00 a.m. to 8.00 p.m. daily, except for Mondays. Last admission is at 7.30 p.m. Please note that galleries are cleared fifteen minutes before closing.
Public Holidays:
The Museum is closed on the following dates: 1 January, 6 January, 25 March, Orthodox Good Friday, Easter Monday, 1 May, Whit Monday, 15 August, 28 October, 25 December & 26 December.
Ticketing:
The Acropolis Museum will open to the public, on a restricted basis, on Sunday 21 June 2009. On Sunday 21, Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 June 2009 visitors can only enter the museum with an e-ticket – a ticket pre-purchased through the Museum’s website.
On Sunday 21, Monday 22 and Tuesday 23 June 2009, other than e-ticketing, there will be no other tickets available for entry. No tickets will be sold at the Museum.
From Wednesday 24 June 2009, visitors will be able to gain admission to the Museum with the purchase of a ticket at the Museum, or the pre purchase of a ticket on the Museum website. (I was told by some people that the e-ticket site is hard to connect to, and sells tickets that are probably a few weeks from now, no tickets are available for the CURRENT visit; and as for the tickets sold on the spot, I suspect there is a huge line-up?). As of Wednesday 24 June 2009, there will be free admission for YPPO cardholders.
From 21 June 2009 to 31 December 2009, the cost of entry for all visitors is 1 euro.
The New Acropolis Museum’s official site does not explain to you what’s the YPPO card holders!
A search of the internet reveals that the YPPO is the Greek Ministry of Culture (Υπουργείου Πολιτισμού http://www.yppo.gr/0/gindex.jsp), and there is no English text on this ministry’s site, but I assume this YPPO card must be an annual membership card, or a sponsors & donors privilege card.
According to the ministry’s website, the minister, Antonis Samaras, studied economics at Amherst College (BA, 1974) and Business Administration at Harvard University (MBA, 1976), perhaps this is why the website has no English due to economic cost-cutting measures? Mr. Samaras speaks English, French and Italian, so he will be able to translate instantly into any of the 3 languages for you upon enquiries? Or, maybe the ministry of culture’s site deals mainly with internal administrative matters, so we outsiders don’t need to know what’s going on! Yes, I think I have found the reason why there is no English on its website now!
