Greece saves its museums from privatization: 2,330 sites, including Knossos Palace, will not be sold

Greece’s government, led by Alexis Tsipras, has averted the risk of privatization of its museums: hundreds of sites had in fact been put on a list of places to be sold off to private owners to deal with the debt crisis. The monuments included symbolic places in the country, such as the Palace of Knossos in Crete, the great building dating back to around 2000 B.C. and an important vestige of the Minoan civilization, or the tomb of Philip the Macedonian, father of Alexander the Great, or even the White Tower in Thessaloniki, one of the symbols of Ottoman Greece, as well as numerous museums and archaeological sites.

From the Greek Ministry of Culture they let it be known that 2,330 sites have been removed from the list of state properties that were about to be put up for sale. The list of state properties to be sold to private parties had been compiled in June amid protests and was based on agreements with the Troika dating back to 2015 to save Greece from a possible financial default. Now the long-awaited backtrack has finally arrived: evidently the harsh protests of Greeks, which also resulted in prolonged strikes by heritage workers (in October, one such strike even led to the closure of the Acropolis), have helped. Greek cultural heritage assets will be protected by a special ministerial decree that will prevent their transfer to private individuals.

Image: the Palace of Knossos. Ph. Credit

Greece saves its museums from privatization: 2,330 sites, including Knossos Palace, will not be sold

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