The problems they have identified in the operation of the large of museums which were converted into Legal Entities under Public Law (NPDD)the institutional changes foreseen in the rescue excavations, the phenomena of illegal construction in Mykonos and other islands and also the case of his permanent seat, from which he has been expelled but is still pending, were the main topics that were touched upon during yesterday’s interview his type Association of Greek Archaeologists.
Reduced opening hours and staff shortages at the five major museums
The president of the Association, Kostas Paschalidis, described the situation in the National Archaeological Museumthe Byzantine and Christian Museum of Athens, the Archaeological Museum of Thessaloniki, the Museum of Byzantine Culture of Thessaloniki and the Archaeological Museum of Heraklion which have been operating for the last year under the status of a Legal Entity under Public Law, a legislative change to which the archaeologists had, from the beginning, reacted strongly. “For the first time, the country’s five major museums are not open, from 8 am to 8 pm, as set by the summer schedule, but they close at 3.30 to 4.00, they cannot serve the smooth access of visitors, while many of their halls remain closed due to significant shortages of security and cleaning personnel” underlined Mr. Paschalidis and added: “Administrations chosen by the Minister of Culture were set up which cannot implement the law, because there is no institutional way of implementing simple things such as the disbursement of the amounts needed for consumables, invitations cannot be made even for emergency recruitments, with the result that there are minimal security personnel and the consequences are visible and often tragic”.
As the most characteristic example of the prevailing situation, the president of SEA mentioned the recent one cable theft that occurred at the Byzantine and Christian Museumregarding whose financial management, for the last year, as was first announced, an investigation has been launched after complaint of the Association.
The above problems were confirmed by the tour guide Mr. Kritonas Piperas, pointing out that “the queues at the museums and their reduced opening hours create problems for both individual visitors and groups and multi-day tourist programs, while there are complaints from visitors who come to admire specific exhibits and they don’t succeed in the end as the halls that host them are closed.”
The eviction of the Association from the building where it was housed
Regarding the building on Ermou Street, where the Association was housed for decades and has now left after suspension of its granting by the Ministry of Cultureit was reported that he currently remains homeless, as only an old warehouse building has been allocated for the storage of his library and archive, while it was emphasized that “the final decision of the Council of State has not yet been issued”.
The Association of Greek Archaeologists appears convinced that the real reason for his eviction from the building was an event he hosted last year about the Pylos wreck and not a single anonymous complaint made against him to the National Transparency Authority that led to an audit of his finances. “The large investigation into the finances of the Association over a period of five years proved the transparent way of management. There is no mismanagement, no commercial use and no profiteering as claimed.”
Regarding the events hosted in the building by the Association and the people hosted by Despina Koutsouba, she replied that “these were events and actions of a cultural nature and the operation of a hostel for the hosting of their colleagues from the province which was foreseen by earlier relevant documents” which they gave to the public.
Regarding the accusations that the Association had the building available for rent for events, its president explained: “All these events and actions have taken place following a hosting agreement with the approval of the SEA Board and the authorized building committee. Each concession is signed and checked as a donation in the annual financial budget as well as in the extraordinary financial controls. The donations they always have an amount of consideration that justifies the term and it has to do with the operational costs of hosting per day. As you will see in the relevant documents, the total of donations never exceeds the total of contributions from the members of our small club. If the condition of the donation did not exist, the building would not be able to function, it would be closed. To operate a building of 300 sq.m. in this area of Athens specific amounts are required. We have chosen for the last 15 years to have a fully alive space and we keep it open with the necessary consideration which, as you will see, does not exceed 45 or 50 euros.”
Specifically, as it appears from the data, the period investigated by the EAD, that is from 2-28-2017 to 6-16-2023 (76 months), the total income of the Association was 288,717 (of which 208,897 are members’ subscriptions). This means an average total income per month of 3,798 euros, for an Association with approximately 1000 members, which employs one full-time employee in its secretariat.
In addition, it was mentioned that the very good condition in which the building was delivered is confirmed both by the autopsy report carried out at the end of 2023 and by photos and videos available to the Association, while the suspicion was expressed that the recent disposal decision, by national resources, in the amount of 1,300,000 euros for the restoration of the building is related to the intention to change its use and not to required maintenance works.
The abuses in the construction of Mykonos and other islands
About the orgy of illegal construction in Mykonos, the size of which was revealed after the mafia attack that the archaeologist Manolis Psarros received last year because he was defending the legality, it was pointed out that the arbitrariness on the island has now been exposed but there is still a lot to be done both in Mykonos and on other islands: “Fortunately, all the competent agencies and the prosecutor were mobilized to carry out checks and demolitions of arbitrary. However, many cases are pending.
The audit report of the Ministry of Environment and Energy mentions, for example, a plot of land, which is in fact located near an archaeological site, where a house was started to be built that managed to be subject to arbitrary settlement, even though this law stipulated that the house must have built before 2011. The inspectors discovered this, stopped the work and when they went back a year later, they found that the work was continuing normally even though the building permit had been revoked. The same arbitrariness takes place on other islands such as Rhodes and others.” stressed Despina Koutsouba and added that “it is necessary to staff the control mechanisms but also to link the data of the archaeological sites and the zones available to the Ministry of Culture, through the archaeological cadastre, with the data of the TEE in order to prevent errors or expediencies of engineers who do not get permission from the archaeological service”.
Proper excavations by people outside the archaeological service
However, strong concern was also expressed about the institution by the Ministry of Culture of rescue excavations for the museums that operate as NPDD and the Organization for the Management and Development of Cultural Resources (OPAD) by people who do not come from the archaeological service. “Something like this is against the law and the Constitution and we wonder if other NPDD will be established, supervised by the YPPO to do the rescue excavations or if, for example, the National Archaeological Museum will alone do the excavations for its expansion something like which is not correct as it is the responsibility of the Ephorate of Antiquities of Athens” noted the vice-president of the Association of Greek Archaeologists, Despina Koutsoupa.
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