Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation

Municipality of Athens

An impressive Museum of Modern Art, showcasing the mythical collection of Basil & Elise Goulandris, opened for the public in October 2019 and now adorns the centre of Athens.

“Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation” museum bears the name of its founders and is housed in a stunning, modern building, a few metres away from Panathenaic Stadium (Kallimarmaro). It is a self-owned property, which occurred from the harmonious interaction between a listed, interwar building and a contemporary extension.

The extraordinary museum was designed specifically to house the collection of the B. and E. Goulandris Foundation. The collection mainly focuses on modern and contemporary art by Greek and foreign artists, including rare works by masters of the European avant-garde such as Cézanne, Monet, Gauguin, Degas, Miró, van Gogh, Rodin, Bonnard, Picasso, Giacometti, Léger, Toulouse-Lautrec, Braque, Balthus, as well as works by distinguished modern Greek painters including Parthenis, Tsarouchis, Moralis, Tetsis, Hadjikyriakos-Ghikas, Bouzianis, Vassiliou and others.

The museum building has a total surface area of 7,250 sq.m. and extends over 11 floors, five of which are below ground. The exhibition areas cover a total of five floors, four above ground with a surface area of 1,124 sq.m. housing the permanent collection and one below ground with a surface area of 530 sq.m. that hosts temporary exhibitions of Greek and foreign artists, in the context of the Foundation’s established exhibition policy which has pervaded its activities in Andros island over the last forty years.

The ground floor features the museum shop where visitors can purchase publications by the Foundation and other publishing houses as well as gifts, while the museum’s café-restaurant is located on the mezzanine floor. It is an open, urban garden ideal for coffee, breakfast, lunch, or light dinner that offers the most contemporary version of international Greek cuisine, taking full advantage of fresh, exclusively Mediterranean ingredients.

The floors below ground host a library with around 6,500 books, a children’s workshop that hosts educational programs and art classes for children, as well as a state-of-the-art 187-seat amphitheatre that hosts events including lectures, conferences, screenings, performances, concerts, and other artistic and scientific activities.