Donation of works from the art collection of Dimitris Daskalopoulos

The donation of a large part of the private collection of works of art of the businessman and former president of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises-SEV Dimitris Daskalopoulos was announced yesterday at an event held at the old Tobacco Factory. The donation concerns four public institutions in three countries in Europe and the Americas.

More specifically, more than 140 works will enhance the collection of the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST), about 100 works will be donated to the Guggenheim Museum and MCA in Chicago, and about 110 works will be donated to Tate. A total of more than 350 works of contemporary art of the Collection by 142 artists will enrich the existing collections of the Museum.

The donation of the D. Daskalopoulos Collection will strengthen the international cooperation between EMST and Tate and will create the field for cultural exchanges between the two bodies both in terms of knowledge and experience as well as in lending of works at national and international level. In addition, it will establish a strong partnership between the MCA Chicago and Guggenheim Museums for the joint maintenance and presentation of the works.

According to Dimitris Daskalopoulos, “I believe that the collector has a responsibility towards the works of his collection and the artists: he has the moral obligation to take care of the future of his collection with the same care and attention that he invested for its creation. Art acquires meaning and influence only through its conciliation with the public. That’s why art needs communicators more than owners. This reasoning led me to the decision to donate the bulk of my collection to important art galleries. Through the donation, the works will be accessible to the general public, will have the necessary care to be preserved for future generations and will remain in dialogue with the art of the future.”

Through the Collection, its creator Dimitris Daskalopoulos has worked for almost 30 years as a custodian of ideas and human creativity, having as a key element the diffusion of Art Messages to as many recipients as possible, due to his deep belief that art has the ability to inspire people and stimulate the collective consciousness. In this effort to convey his admiration, Dimitris Daskalopoulos, throughout the course of his involvement with art, actively supported many museums, exhibitions and artistic initiatives around the world with personal and financial contribution. At the same time, he maintained an open policy of lending the works of the Collection, while he created NEON which deals with the promotion of contemporary art to the public of Greece.

It is therefore the natural evolution of this mentality and this way of action the decision to donate the largest part of the Collection to public organizations, ie to the Greatest Synagogues of contemporary art around the world.

The D. Daskalopoulos Collection is a wide range of works of contemporary art by leading artists of the international art scene of the last four decades, who shaped and continue to shape the next artistic generations. The works of the Collection reflect the key concerns of art and at the same time concern universal, primordial and timeless themes, such as the human entity as a source of creation, but also as a field of existential, social and ideological struggle.

It includes important artists such as: Marina Abramović, Kutluğ Ataman, Matthew Barney, Louise Bourgeois, Vlasis Kaniaris, Helen Chadwick, Paul Chan, Bruce Conner, Abraham Cruzvillegas, Robert Gober, David Hammons, Mona Hatoum, Isaac Julien, Isaac Julien Λογοθέτης, Sarah Lucas, Paul McCarthy, Steve McQueen, Ana Mendieta, Marisa Merz, Annette Messager, Wangechi Mutu, Ernesto Neto, Rivane Neuenschwander, Cornelia Parker, Pipilotti Rist, Dieter Roth, Doris Salcedo, Kiki Smith, Paul Thek.