Contemporary Art Museum: Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation is open to the public

As announced in a recent press conference the much-awaited Goulandris museum will open on October 2, with a series of celebratory events.

Shipowner Basil Goulandris and his wife Elise were active members of the art scene in Athens, as well as in their second hometown, Paris. Through their dedication to the arts and their travels, they formed relationships with other art collectors and artists, and over the years they accumulated an incredible contemporary art collection – one that includes masterpieces by great artists, such as Pablo Picasso, Auguste Renoir, Henri Matisse, Vincent Van Gogh, and Claude Monet, as well as many prominent Greek artists.

While their collection received much recognition in France, it was their dream to build a museum in Athens, and present their collection there for the Greek people to enjoy and benefit from. Now, years after their deaths, the opening day of October 2 is fast-approaching, and it seems the museum will be all that they wished for.

Featuring 7,250 square meters spread over 11 floors, the museum was built around an early 20th-century building on St. Spyridonas Square, Athens. It consists of beautiful spaces for the lobby and the exhibitions, an art library, a workshop space, a café-restaurant, offices and an amphitheater with room for 190 people.

The incredible collection will be on display for the citizens of Athens, and simultaneously provide the city with a new visitor attraction, on a level with some of the leading contemporary art museums in Europe.

Read more here: www.goulandris.gr