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The National Gallery- Alexandros Soutsos Museum was founded on April 10, 1900 and the acclaimed painter Georgios Iakovidis was appointed its first chief curator. Its early collections came from the National Technical University and the University of Athens.
Substantial donations came to be added to these and today, the National Gallery collections comprise more than 20,000 works of painting, sculpture, engraving and other forms of art; this is the treasury of Modern Greek art, encompassing the period from the post-Byzantine times until today. Moreover, the National Gallery owns a remarkable collection of Western European paintings. In 1954, the National Gallery merged with the Alexandros Soutsos Estate, hence its double name. The institutional role of the National Gallery is to collect, keep safe, preserve, study and exhibit works of art towards the aesthetic training of the public, the on-going education through art and the recreation that it is able to provide, as well as the self-awareness of the Greek people through the history of art, which expresses the national history on a symbolic level. |
Exterior Gallery: © Greek News Agenda Interior Gallery: © Touristorama.com
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The National Gallery-Alexandros Soutsos Museum also houses an extensive library with invaluable archival material and specialized conservation laboratories, equipped with up-to-date scanning, examination and restoration systems. The highly specialized scientific, administrative and security personnel efficiently and selflessly responds to the demanding and diverse operations of such an important museum.
The Professor of History of Art Marina Lambraki-Plaka has been the Director of the National Gallery since 1992.
In 2000, the National Gallery-Alexandros Soutsos Museum celebrated its 100th anniversary. This historical landmark was punctuated by the grand opening of the new display of the museum’s permanent collections in the renovated interiors sponsored by the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation. The display of the permanent collections reflects the current developments in museological presentation following the parallel development in art and society. The works in the collections have been digitized under the EU operational program “Information Society”. The National Gallery has developed a busy publishing agenda in recent years, both in print and in digital form, including collection guides, seminal catalogues to accompany the exhibitions and educational books for young people.
Aiming to expand its educational role and activity throughout Greece, the National Gallery-Alexandros Soutsos Museum has added two annexes to the existing Koumantareios Gallery in Sparta: one in Corfu (Kato Korakiana), in 1993, and one in Nafplion, in 2004.
The Professor of History of Art Marina Lambraki-Plaka has been the Director of the National Gallery since 1992.
In 2000, the National Gallery-Alexandros Soutsos Museum celebrated its 100th anniversary. This historical landmark was punctuated by the grand opening of the new display of the museum’s permanent collections in the renovated interiors sponsored by the Stavros S. Niarchos Foundation. The display of the permanent collections reflects the current developments in museological presentation following the parallel development in art and society. The works in the collections have been digitized under the EU operational program “Information Society”. The National Gallery has developed a busy publishing agenda in recent years, both in print and in digital form, including collection guides, seminal catalogues to accompany the exhibitions and educational books for young people.
Aiming to expand its educational role and activity throughout Greece, the National Gallery-Alexandros Soutsos Museum has added two annexes to the existing Koumantareios Gallery in Sparta: one in Corfu (Kato Korakiana), in 1993, and one in Nafplion, in 2004.
