The last time I came to Athens, in September 2008, the new Acropolis Museum had not yet opened its doors, but its raked angles were already visible, gracefully tucked into the slopes under the Acropolis. Now the museum is gloriously open. Its luminous, airy interior hovers on stilts over still ongoing excavations, whilst its rectangular top floor is skewed so as to be in perfect alignment with the parthenon. Inside the top atrium, the parthenon’s two freizes (some the originals, others casts of the Elgin marbles)  are perfectly displayed so that the visitor can get a full sense of the stories they recount. No matter from which angle one views the museum, it never seems out of place with its environment and is always stylish. It is, in short, a brilliant success for its Swiss architect, Bernard Tschumi, and his Greek associate, Michael Photiades. But the good news doesn’t stop there. The museum is democratically priced (at 5 euros, with all sorts of reductions) and sports an excellent, democratically-priced restaurant with an external terrace looking up to the Acropolis and the parthenon. And the rest of the exhibition is done is such a way that the visitor feels he or she is amidst a light gathering of statues, the museum’s design ensuring that visitors flow in a way that avoids any sense of crowdedness. In short, a highlight of the summer and an absolute ‘must’ for any visitor to Athens. What possible reason can there be for not giving back the marbles now? The museum is even designed to resist an earthquake up to ten on the Richter scale!