Last night the Director of the New Acropolis Museum in Athens, Professor Dimitrios Pandermalis presented a lecture entitled "Collections present and absent at the New Acropolis Museum, Athens" in the Ceramics Room of the National Museum on Kildare Street.

The talk itself detailed the building of the museum and explained some of the choices that had to be made and decisions that were taken in its design and construction.

However, while the lecture was ostensibly about the Museum itself there was an undercurrent throughout about the 'absent' artefacts mentioned in the title. Dr. Pat Wallace, Director of the National Museum of Ireland flagged this from the start, somewhat enigmatically assuring Prof. Pandermalis that while he was constrained by politics when talking about the controversial issue of repatriation of the Elgin Marbles, the Professor could be certain that he was 'among friends'.

Read more about the lecture on my Heritage Key blog here.