Pagans protest with ancient rite at Acropolis site

Greek pagans held a ceremony on the site of the Acropolis for the first time in 2,000 years to demonstrate against the New Acropolis Museum in Athens.

Worshippers clad in white gathered on Sunday before the country's most sacred site, marking the first such ritual held on the site in centuries.

They invoked Athena, goddess of wisdom, to protect the sculptures taken from the temples to the new museum.

"It's scandalous that antiquities of such value, carved in honour of Athena, should be wrested from their natural environment and moved to a new locale," Yannis Kontopidis, one of the high priests, told The Guardian newspaper.

Thousands of items were transferred last year by crane from the citadel to a $180.7 million glass-and-concrete New Acropolis Museum underneath. The building is slated to open this fall.

Government officials have said the building will provide better protection of the antiquities and an enhanced viewing of the objects.

Greek authorities are eager to prove they have a place for the priceless pieces and for the return of antiquities from abroad.

The British Museum has long argued that it won't return classical works taken by Lord Elgin from the temples more than 200 years ago because of the lack of proper security and space for them.

Critics say the new museum has little to do with Greece's cultural heritage as it's situated in the wrong location and too big in scale.