The opening of the museum has been one of the more successful undertakings in recent years.  The building and its collections have drawn international acclaim and become a fixture of the city and a source of pride for many Athenians.

In its 5 years of operation it has seen 6.5 million visitors pass through its doors, an average of about 3,000 a day. The museum’s website also receives around half a million visits per year. Officials also claim that the despite the difficult financial climate, the museum has succeeded in self funding its operations.

The museum has also begun augmenting its exhibits with innovative technologies. On the occasion of its fifth birthday, it will commence an ambitious digital restoration program of the Parthenon sculptures. Horse riders of the west frieze will be presented in 3D digital images with additions of copper weapons and bridles, with alternating light and color testing.

There are also plans to expand the museum when the financial circumstances allow to allow visitors to tour neighbouring excavations and a virtual reconstruction of the area as it was during the Classical era.

The museum has also had a profound effect on the long-standing demand of the Greeks for the British Museum to return the Parthenon Marbles (aka the Elgin marbles). Prior to the opening of the museum one of the key arguments used by the British Museum to reject the demand was that Greece did not have a suitable space for them.

“By illustrating how the Parthenon sculptures have been torn apart and how the whole would look with their return, we are keeping the public’s interest in the matter keen,” museum president Professor Dimitris Pantermalis told Kathimerini. “With an issue that has been ongoing for 200 years, it is important to explain anew every time why it is worth the effort. The discreet way in which we have chosen to present the issue has a bigger effect on public opinion than outrage.”

For all those unable to visit in the flesh below is a short virtual tour of the museum: