Greek Culture Under Threat

Archaeologists are campaigning to stop cuts to the Ministry of Culture's budget. Job losses have meant fewer guards and more break-ins at some of the world's most famous sites.

Published

about 1 year ago

Categories

Arts & Society, Religion & Society

Places

Greece, Athens

Tags

parthenon, museum, civil servant, greek culture, protest, greek bailout, greek austerity, greek debt crisis, economy, society & culture

Transcript

The Parthenon Temple - dedicated to the Greek goddess, Athena, and the most famous surviving building of Classical Greece.But archaeologists now say the building and others like it are suffering from the austerity measures, affecting the country's budget for culture.Despoina Koutsouba is President of the archaeologists association:(SOUNDBITE)(English) DESPOINA KOUTSOUBA, PRESIDENT OF THE ARCHAEOLOGISTS ASSOCIATION SAYING:"We ask everyone in Europe to understand that shouting for Greece and its monuments is shouting for himself, because all this austerity package will go to every country in Europe...Greece was the first, it wont stay here, it will affect everyone in Europe. Today it is the Acropolis Museum, tomorrow it will be the Louvre."The archaeologists are campaigning to stop the cutbacks.Government officials say the Culture ministry's budget has been slashed by 35 percent since 2009.There have been 2000 job losses in the sector since last year and more jobs are expected to go because the government is committed to reducing the civil service workforce by 15,000 in 2012.(SOUNDBITE)(English) DESPOINA KOUTSOUBA, PRESIDENT OF THE GREEK ARCHAEOLOGISTS ASSOCIATION SAYING:"We had so many illegal digs all over Greece, we had so many problems with guarding museums, we have museums that are closed because we dont have enough guards we have enough guards to keep them as just a storehouse, but museums cannot be storehouses, museums should be open to the public, if they are not open to the public they are not museums anymore."Last year the National Art Gallery and the Museum of the History of the Olympic Games were broken into. The thieves stole some of Greece's treasured paintings and artefacts.Joanne Nicholson, Reuters