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Athens Macedonian News Agency: News in English, 13-03-03
CONTENTS
[01] Farewell tour at National Gallery ahead of closure for renovation,
expansion
[01] Farewell tour at National Gallery ahead of closure for renovation,
expansion
AMNA/ A farewell tour was held Saturday at the National Art Gallery
in central Athens, which closes on Tuesday for 850 days, to reopen
on Christmas Day 2015, fully renovated and occupying double of its
present expanse.
More than six million people have visited the Gallery over the past 20
years, 95 percent of them Greeks and the other 5 percent foreign tourists,
figures that belie the myth that the Greeks are indifferent to culture,
according to Gallery director Marina Lambraki-Plaka, who greeted the
public on the final tour before the building closes for the commencement
of the renovation work in April.
The farewell tour was held on the second floor of the Gallery, taking
in the collections of 20th century paintings of Greek artists in the
exhibition halls that had been revamped in 2000 with funding by the
Stavros Niarchos Foundation and funds from the Community Support Framework
(CSF).
The Gallery's collections, which number some 15,000 paintings, sculptures
and engravings will be stored in safe-deposit facilities of the
National Bank of Greece, while a selection of artwork will be exhibited
periodically at the National Glyptotheque, the sculpture museum that is
an annex of the National Gallery in Goudi.
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