With its announcement, the Benaki Museum bids farewell to Emilia Geroulanou. The funeral of the former president of the Benaki Museum will be held on Saturday, January 27 at 12.00 at the First Cemetery (Agioi Theodoroi).

Below is the announcement of the Benaki Museum

“Emilia Geroulanou (1934-2024)

With deep sadness and love, the Administrative Committee and the staff of the Benaki Museum say goodbye to Emilia Geroulanou. Her presence at the Museum was decisive for everyone.

Daughter of Pavlos and Irene Kalligas and granddaughter of the Museum’s founder, Antonis Benakis, an archaeologist herself, she has always been a dynamic and pioneering personality throughout her life. She initially collaborated with Manolis Hatzidakis on the great Byzantine exhibition in Zappeion in 1964 and later, when the junta of the colonels fired her from the Byzantine Museum, she started working voluntarily at the Benaki Museum. She was always open to people and their ideas, always sensitive and willing to contribute to society.

He had the foresight to start the creation of the Museum’s Photographic Archive, the first in Greece, initially as a collection of photographs of monuments and objects of Byzantine and post-Byzantine art and later as an organized archive with an expanded subject covering the history and culture of the modern and modern Greece.

In 1979 he spearheaded the creation of another department of the Museum, the Educational Programs, the first education department in a Greek museum. Both of these pioneering steps contributed to the formation of the multi-collective character of the Benaki Museum.

Fruit of her personal engagement with gold jewelry was her book “Diatrita” (1999).

Her contribution to the Foundation continued as a member of the Administrative Committee (2000-2005) and President (2005-2018), during one of the most difficult times for cultural institutions. Her boundless optimism, honesty, humor and, above all, her unwavering faith in people and the Museum, were the priceless cohesive substance of the creative family of the Benaki Museum. Her active and long-term activity not only in the Benaki Museum but also in the Hellenic Guidance Corps and the Municipality of Athens left a deep and positive imprint on the social and cultural life of Greece, an imprint that all those who knew and worked with her face with respect and love.

Her warm embrace will be sorely missed.”

According to the family’s request, instead of wreaths, anyone who wishes to support the work of the Benaki Museum by depositing into the following account:

Alpha Bank

Account no: 369 00 2002 000759

IBAN: GR31 0140 3690 3690 0200 2000 759

SWIFT CODE (BIC): CRBAGRAAXXX

In the statement of reasons, please mention “in memory

Emilias Geroulanou” and in the details of the depositor, the

name and contact details (address, telephone

and/or email address).