Athens Attractions

Venue: Benaki Museum    When: Daily; not Tue

One of the leading museums in Athens, the Benaki Museum was founded in 1931 with the collections of Ant Benakis and other donors.

The museum has six sections: Greece at the Benaki has 33,000 works representing Greek culture from antiquity to the creation of the modern Greek state. The Hadjikyriakou-Gika Gallery is an annex of the museum in the building where the eponymous artist lived for 40 years. Toys and Childhood includes 15,000 old toys and children's objects. Coptic Art is a collection of fabrics, metalwork and woodwork representing the production of Egypt in the 5th and 6th centuries.

The Chinese Art section displays more than 1300 exhibits representative of Chinese civilisation from the 3rd Millenium BC to the 19th century, while the Islamic Art section is home to one of the leading collections in the world. It displays more than 8000 exhibits from Europe, the Middle East, North Africa, Persia and India, representative of the development of Islamic art through the ages until the 19th century.

Please note that at times some of these collections may be moved to other buildings belonging to the Benaki Museum.