The New Acropolis Museum was first conceived in 1976 by Constantinos Karamanlis, who also selected the site where it would be constructed, overlooking the Acropolis. At the time, the Greek government carried out two architectural competitions to no success. In 1989, the results of a third competition had to be annulled due to the discovery of the archaelogical remains of an urban settlement on the exact site where the museum would be constructed. After excavations, the Greek government started a competition again in 2000, this time looking for projects that would incorporate the rich archaelogy of the site as well as house objects and sculptures from the Acropolis. Bernard Tschumi and Michael Photiadis were the winners and designed the new building, which was completed in 2007 and opened to the public in 2009.
