07-13-2007, 05:16 AM
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Level 10 user
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Join Date: Aug 2005
Location: Singapore
Posts: 3,716
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Moving Heavy Fragile Sculpture
For those who are interested, this online article explains with quite a few photos how Athens lifts and packs its priceless ancient statues to move them from the Acropolis to a new museum.
Greek statues chained, padded for move
7/12/2007, ATHENS, Greece—Many of Greece's most valued ancient statues are wearing chains and padded vests, ready for a rare outing.
Culture Ministry officials demonstrated Thursday how more than 300 statues from the Acropolis are being packed for a move this fall to a new museum being built at the bottom of the hill.
Statues from the Parthenon and other temples, up to 2,600 years old and weighing up to 2.5 tons, are being fitted with padded harnesses and will be lowered by chains and pulleys into styrofoam-filled boxes made of plywood and metal.
 
Once packed, they will be moved about 300 yards by crane from a cramped museum on the Acropolis to the new glass-and-concrete museum designed by U.S.-based architect Bernard Tschumi.
"This is an operation which requires great care ... We will work long hours and through holidays," supervising engineer Costas Zambas told The Associated Press.
Some 165-foot shock-absorbing cranes will be used for the transfer that is due to last about six weeks and will cost an estimated $3.5 million. ....
"Great care is being taken at every stage of the transfer ... Many statues are undergoing restoration work before the transfer," Voulgarakis said, adding that the air content in the sealed display holding the Caryatids was already being altered for the statues to adapt to the conditions at the new museum.
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