Greece Unveils First Contemporary Art Museum

"I think this is something that should have happened years ago," the museum’s director said.

Legislation establishing the museum, known as EMST, was passed 19 years ago. The museum is built in the refurbished Fix brewery in central Athens.

Introducing modern art to a culture brought up on marble columns and the galloping friezes of the Parthenon would appear to be a daunting and thankless task, but Katerina Koskinas, the director of Greece's first National Museum of Contemporary Art, was giddy with excitement and lack of sleep on the eve of the museum's opening.

EMST may not fire up the art market directly, since it is not an art broker, but it will make Greek artists more visible.

EMST was conceived in a period of optimism. In the late 1990s, Greece planned its new Acropolis Museum, now the country's most popular attraction after the Acropolis itself. The shift to culture could emerge as Greece's next national project.

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