Benaki Museum unveils a castle full of toys

The Benaki Toy Museum, housed in a fairy-tale edifice at Palaio Faliro on Athens's southern coast, is poised to open its doors to the public for the first time Sunday.

It is the latest addition to the Benaki group of museums and is based on a vast collection of vintage toys donated by Maria Argyriadi.

"This is like closing a circle that has taken 25 years to achieve," says Argyriadi of a process that started in 1980 and was anything but a game, as she sought noteworthy exhibits such as the wooden rocking horse that early 20th century statesman Eleftherios Venizelos had given his grandson or the porcelain and ivory toy set that once belonged to Queen Olga.

Of Argyriadi's 20,000-strong collection of toys, dating from Roman and Byzantine times to the middle of the last century, around 3,000 will be put on show in alternating displays at the Benaki's new museum.