ART

Continuing her long protest over Great Britain’s holding of the famed Elgin Marbles, Greek Culture Minister Melina Mercouri said Wednesday her government will keep a room in a new Athens museum empty and waiting for the priceless sculptures taken from the Acropolis more than 180 years ago. “The struggle to regain the Elgin Marbles is a daily one,” Mercouri told a news conference. Mercouri has fought an unsuccessful five-year campaign to win back the ancient Greek sculptures--cut away from the frieze of the Parthenon by British diplomat Lord Elgin in 1806 and on view in the British Museum--and house them in the Acropolis Museum, now under construction.