THE Despina Geroulanou passed away today, Tuesday, after hospitalization in the intensive care unit of an Athens hospital due to a pulmonary disease. Loyal Athena, raised in a house with descendants of Antonis Benakis, where letters and arts, archeology and faith in tradition were an integral part of the life of the house and its people.

He studied at the Philosophical School of the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki and at the Drama School of the Greek Art Theater (Art Theater) Karolos Koun. She worked in theater and cinema from 1983 to 1990. She also attended painting, sculpture and jewelry classes in Paris and in 1992 organized her first solo jewelry exhibition in Athens. More individual and group exhibitions followed.

From 1994 she was director of the Benaki Museum Galleries, reorganizing the Museum’s first shop and establishing four new spaces to promote and support traditional and contemporary applied arts and design. He has edited various exhibitions and events in these fields. Among them are the series “Searches in Material” and “The Showcase of Kriezotou 3”, highlighting important representatives of the applied arts and design. Today he is a member of the Administrative Committee of the Benaki Museum and the representative of Greece on the Cultural Council of the Michelangelo Foundation for Creativity and Craftsmanship.

She had identified her life with the Benaki Museum and the preservation of Greek treasures as proof of the continuity of the greatness of Greece and its history. Her Byzantineologist mother, granddaughter of Antonis Benakis, was also the first to organize the first educational programs at the Benakis Museum and the photographic archive.

In the last year he was the chairman of the Board of Directors. of the organization “Elefsina 2023 – Cultural Capital of Europe”.