Athens - The Museum of Contemporary Art

So, for the afternoon we went to see another museum. This one is a brand new one, which only opened and the end of last year and I got it recommended by my Greek colleague at the LAD, who said it was a must-see.  It is called The Basil & Elise Goulandris, after the founders. The museum is housing their private collection which focuses on modern and contemporary art by both Greek and foreign artists.

Since we had been up and down the Lycabettus Hill and walked about for quite a while already, we  started our visit in the lovely cafe. We really enjoyed being able to now sit outside in the beautiful courtyard, as the weather the last two days had warmed up considerably; and also it was the best coffee (and cake!) I had during our stay in Athens.

The museum is introduced already in the foyer by this 1966 portrait of Elise, commissioned to be painted by Marc Chagall. Further on in the collection there is both Cézanne and Degas; Monet and Rodin; Picasson and Braque; Miró and Gauguin and many many  more.

The building has 11 floors, five of which have been dug below ground. I walked around every floor and visited the whole exhibition with the complimentary audio guide, and I listened to (almost) every single entry on it!

When I was done I retrieved the kids from the foyer where they were waiting after they had done their visit. They were really patient with me I must say! I wanted to get a few things from the souvenir shop (read: books...) but the only downside with this museum was that everything there was extortionately expensive. For example the museum catalogue was €70 - so no, nothing this time unfortunately.