"The chief distinguishing feature of that time is that the damage to the monuments as a result of the techniques and means of Balanos' interventions were recognized. As early as the decade of the 1940's, during the war, the first signs of rusting of the iron reinforcements that had been incorporated in the monuments was reported. During the years that followed, with the drastic alteration in the change of the Acropolis because of the growth of Athens from a middle-sized city to the capital of the Greek State, the situation worsened dramatically. Added to the problem of rusting out and swelling of the iron reinforcements in members of the monuments were those of surface erosion from atmospheric pollution and acid rain, the insecure structural condition of the monuments because of breakage, the wear of the surface of the rock - itself a monument, bearing traces of its long history - from the feet of visitors who now crowded the Acropolis."
— Acropolis Restoration Service
Nikolaos Balanos in front of the Parthenon frieze
