October 29, 2025
October 17, 2025
When:
Friday, November 7, 2025 | 18:00
Where:
Deree Faculty Lounge , The American College of Greece
Organized by:
The Institute for Hellenic Culture and the Liberal Arts, The American College of Greece
Speaker:
Anastasia Drandaki
Associate Professor of Byzantine Art and Archaeology, University of Athens
Academic advisor at the Benaki Museum
About the seminar
This talk will explore Antonis Benakis’ approach to Byzantium and its arts. The founder of the Benaki Museum was among the most enthusiastic collectors of Byzantine artefacts and icons. However, Benakis did not record the allure or the process of collecting as a private pursuit, nor did he document his later efforts to transform the private into the public by converting the Benakis family mansion into a museum, which he donated to the Greek state. Therefore, we will attempt to shed light on indirect clues, such as his network of correspondence, the strategies he employed as a collector of Byzantine antiquities, and most crucially, the narrative that he crafted for the new museum.
The seminar is free and open to the public. It may also be attended via Zoom, with the link provided on the day of the event and sent by email to those who opt for online participation.
A reception will follow the seminar.
About the speaker
Anastasia Drandaki is Associate Professor of Byzantine Art and Archaeology at the University of Athens and Academic Advisor to the Benaki Museum, where she served for many years as the Curator of the Byzantine Collection. She has published monographs and articles on Byzantine and Post-Byzantine painting, Late Antique and Byzantine metalwork, medieval pilgrimage, the arts of the Sinai Monastery, and the history of Byzantine museums and collections. She has curated numerous exhibitions and edited catalogues for museums in Greece and the USA, including Pilgrimage to Sinai: Treasures from the Monastery of St. Catherine (Benaki Museum, 2004); The Origins of El Greco: Icon Painting in Venetian Crete (Onassis Cultural Center, New York, 2009-2010); Heaven and Earth: Art of Byzantium from Greek Collections (National Gallery of Art Washington, D.C., the Getty Museum, 2013-2014).