After the transformation of the five main museums of the country (National Archaeological, Byzantine and Christian, Archaeological in Thessaloniki, Byzantine Culture and Archaeological Heraklion) into NPDD, under the control of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, I was offered and accepted to the board of directors. Museum of Byzantine Culture.

On May 5, I took part in the annual symposium of the Christian Archaeological Society, in which I have been participating since 2010. The symposium was held in the hall of the Byzantine-Christian Museum of Athens. The presentation of my work was followed by a scientific discussion.

At the exit, I was forcibly stopped by a group of 10 people (members of the “Match Committee of the BKM”) with a demand to leave the Board. MBP. There have already been reports in the press and on the Internet about my person and my choice. I was asked how dare I oppose the decision of the Department of History and Archeology of AUTI, in which I serve, condemning law 5021/2023. I replied that I had expressed my opinion in writing on the substance of Law 5021/2023 on the transformation of museums into NPDD and that in any case I had the right to defend my point of view.

I tried to explain my positions, as they insisted, but instead of dialogue, I received insults on a personal level about my essential qualities, in connection with my position at the university and my specialty. The attacks were repeated in writing in a resolution that was widely circulated and reproduced on the Internet and is an insult to my personality and my scientific establishment. They are also directed against the Faculty of History and Archeology and the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, where I have been working since 2013, in this position and in this subject, for which I was tried three times at different stages. I also teach full-time cultural management courses at the undergraduate and graduate levels in my department, as well as in inter-faculty postgraduate programs.

Insulting my scientific merit diverts the discussion from its essence, the change in the management of the five museums: if I fulfilled their scientific requirements, would everything be all right?

After all, what’s the problem with Act 5021? In my opinion, this is a matter of purely administrative organization of museums, turning into a partisan confrontation. I have never believed in this logic and I do not intend to do so now, because members of the SEA and other associations are trying to intimidate anyone who does not take their position literally. I can be judged for my act, but not for participation in activities, which I judge positively, not according to party, but according to purely scientific criteria, which I publicly discussed, but did not receive a convincing answer.

I believe that the country’s museums need a new breath in the competitive environment that has been created for museums in general, public and private. Greek museums (state museums, according to the Constitution) must become more interesting, complex and accessible to an ever wider and more diverse public: Greek society and the world community. If achieving this requires changing the way they are managed, then the enterprise is worth the effort. In addition, the project, as well as everything in museum activity, will be judged by the result.

*Mr. Anastasios Tantzis is Associate Professor of Byzantine Archeology and Art at AUTH, focusing on the use and management of cultural property.