Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 13-02-25

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From: The Athens News Agency at <http://www.ana.gr/>

CONTENTS

[01] New National Gallery ready by end 2015

[01] New National Gallery ready by end 2015

Scheduled to reopen for Christmas 2015, the new museum will include an additional 11,040 sq.m. (bringing its area to 20,760 sq.m.), a glass front, an additional floor in the rear building, an amphitheatre seating 450, and a cafe looking out to the Acropolis and Lycabettus Hill. Internal ramps will facilitate movement from one storey to the next and the building's stability will be improved.amna

The project will cost 45 million euros, 32 million of which are covered by European structural funds (ESPA) and the rest by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation. The preparatory plans were paid by the Maria Tsakos Foundation.

Details were presented at a press conference attended by Alternate Culture Minister Kostas Tzavaras, ministry secretary general Lina Mendoni and Gallery director Marina Lambraki-Plaka. The director said that the museum had seen six million visitors the last twenty years, and only 5 pct of these were tourists.amna

The original building was designed by professors Nikolaos Moutsopoulos, Paul Mylonas and Dimitris Fatouros. The foundation stone was set in 1964 and the building completed in 1974. Its holdings will be temporarily housed in National Bank vaults at Magoula Attikis and the Goudi Sculpture museum in Goudi, where some 120 of the Gallery's sculptures will be shown in revolving exhibitions.

In addition, the Gallery-affiliated Museum of Christos Kapralos, sculptor, on Egina island, will be completed by end March, Lambraki-Plaka said.amna

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