Time to move Elgin's marbles?

We had a couple of hours after breakfast before we needed to head to the airport so we decided to stay in the cool and visit the new Acropolis Museum next door to our hotel.  This modern building had been specially designed to showcase the finds from around the site and tell its history.

Beneath the museum is an area still under investigation.  

Inside, you "ascend" the Acropolis through fabulous displays of pottery and household goods from mainly 5-7th century BC.  The craftsmanship was outstanding, especially the decorated pottery.

On the next floor are many free standing statues which adorned houses, public buildings and larger city spaces.  You also follow the story of the various stages of building and destruction on the Acropolis.  It is a sad tale of something so magnificent which was burnt down, had a Turkish munitions stash explode in it, then finally getting knocked about by various Victorian archaeologists.

The top floor was just amazing.  In an imaginative design, they recreated the key components of the Parthenon Temple using stainless steel "pillars"

 and placed in relative situ carvings and statues - some in fairly good repair, others hardly recognisable

The pediments have the remaining fragments of the famous marbles with spaces left in the hopes the originals might be returned from the British Museum.  Personally, I think the time is right to return them to a home where they will be well cared for, treasured and reunited with the rest of this incredible building.  I'll be looking for a petition to sign.  

If anyone ever comes to Athens, a visit to this extraordinary museum should precede any climb up the Acropolis itself as it made so much more sense afterwards.

And so our trip ends with me typing this in Paddington Station after another very memorable holiday.  Just one more train to go!