Soccer slogans spray-painted on ancient marble slabs, makeshift chicken coops and a rudimentary “museum” housed in a shipping container with broken windows are the sights that greet visitors to Plato’s Academy Park in Athens.

Plato’s Academy, the birthplace of ideas that helped shape Western civilization, stands today as a monument to neglect rather than learning.

Soccer slogans spray-painted on ancient marble slabs, makeshift chicken coops and a rudimentary “museum” housed in a shipping container with broken windows are the sights that…