The 300 marble statues that have graced the Acropolis for the last 2,500 years will soon be leaving their ancient site.

Greek officials announced Tuesday that the sculptures soon will be moved to a new museum built at the foot of the hill to house Acropolis finds.

The 5th century BC Caryatid statues, housed in the old Acropolis Museum in Athens, will be among 300 statues Greece moves to its new museum between now and the end of the year.The 5th century BC Caryatid statues, housed in the old Acropolis Museum in Athens, will be among 300 statues Greece moves to its new museum between now and the end of the year.
(Thanassis Stavrakis/Associated Press)

When the museum opens in 2008, visitors will see the sculptures in glass-walled rooms that afford a view of the hill where they once stood.

Work to move the sculptures, weighing up to 2.25 tonnes each, will begin before July and could last until the end of the year.

The statues, which include the four Caryatids from the Erechtheion temple, were carved in the 6th and 5th centuries BC to decorate the Parthenon and other temples that stand on the Acropolis.

But they were vulnerable to time, pollution and acid rain when they stood outdoors. Many are currently exhibited in a small museum on the Acropolis.

Moving the statues will be a meticulously planned operation costing $3.6 million.

"It will be a very difficult undertaking," Culture Minister George Voulgarakis said on Tuesday. "This has never been done before. [But] I think everything will go well."

Three 50-metre cranes will move the sculptures from the old museum on the Acropolis to the new building — a distance of 400 metres.

The sculptures will be stored in foam-packed metal boxes, while the cranes are designed to absorb shocks that could damage the marble.

Museum delayed by legal fights, archeological finds

"These works are beyond price," Voulgarakis said. "Nobody can set a precise value to one of the Caryatids."

The $186-million museum was scheduled for completion before the 2004 Athens Olympics, but it was delayed by legal fights and new archeological discoveries made at the site.

The new museum will contain more than 4,000 works — many of which have never been exhibited before.

A space will be left for the Elgin marbles, taken from the Parthenon to Britain in 1806. Greece still hopes to recover the sculptures from Britain.

Designed by U.S.-based architect Bernard Tschumi and Greece's Michael Photiades, the museum incorporates the remains of a 3rd- to 7th-century Athenian neighbourhood discovered during preliminary work on the site.

With files from the Associated Press