Greece’s emblematic National Archaeological Museum in Athens has broken a new record in visitor numbers, passing the half-million mark with 545,565 tickets sold in 2017, up 18.4 percent from the previous year.

This success is attributed to a series of initiatives adopted by the state-owned museum’s management over the past couple of years to attract a wider audience to what is one of the world’s most important treasurers of ancient Greek history and culture.

The success of this new push became apparent in the last quarter of 2016 with the opening of “Odysseys,” an exhibition inspired by the Homeric hero’s spirit of adventure and discovery, which has been extended to March this year, as well as its “Unseen Museum” program, which takes visitors into the institution’s restoration workshops and other “backstage” areas.

NAM also organized 103 international research programs in 2017 and loaned out 403 exhibits for shows in Europe, the US and Asia.

In 2018, NAM is planning to expand on this success with new initiatives, including a major exhibition on the concept of beauty that will be hosted by numerous museums around the country.

This article first appeared on ekathimerini.com.