Museum dedicated to Maria Callas set to open by end-2015

Photo by Christian Steiner

By Dimitris Rigopoulos

A museum dedicated to opera great Maria Callas is expected to open its doors in central Athens by the end of next year. Located at 44 Mitropoleos Street, the museum will be housed in a building owned by the City of Athens.

Carried out by architect-museologist Erato Koutsoudaki, assistant professor of museology Dr Andromachi Gazi and conductor-musicologist Alexandros Charkiolakis, the project’s museological and museographical study was unveiled on Wednesday.

According to reports, the study reflects the considerable progress in the way the Greek state has dealt with the celebrated artist’s added value to date.

Nonetheless, the fact that Athens will finally gain a museum where one of the most famous contemporary Greeks will be honored accordingly is a very good piece of news. At the same time, the city will undoubtedly benefit from the addition of a museum bearing the name of such a powerful and recognizable brand, which could attract opera fans from around the world.

The creation of the museum has come about due to a combination of factors. The core of the Maria Callas collection, which includes a number of personal items, was acquired by the City of Athens at auction several years ago but was never put to good use, given that the area where it was being stored, a part of the Technopolis cultural complex in Gazi, was not transformed into a proper museum space, as had been anticipated.

In 2010, during the tenure of Mayor Nikitas Kaklamanis, the municipality paid 7 million euros for the listed interwar building on Mitropoleos Street. An initial agreement between the City of Athens and theater critic Costas Georgousopoulos that foresaw the venue hosting a theater museum...