The Building
The museum is located in one of the oldest and most picturesque part of Athens, Plaka. It is housed in two different building that stand the one next to the other. The first one was built in 1860 and it was one of the first neoclassical buildings of Athens. The neoclassical architectural elements (columns, cornice ext.) are still visible. The building has an internal yard covered by a glass roof typical of the architecture of the time. The five store of the building are used as the exhibition area of the museum, while in the yard there is a café. The second building, also neoclassical, was built by the famous German architect Ernst Ziller in 1904. The Ionian exterior decoration of the building still inspires the admiration of the visitor. Both buildings were recently renovated by the Frissira family.
The Collection
Vlassis Frissiras, an attorney, has created the collection of the Frissiras museum. He had a passion for and he started buying works of art in 1978. He was mostly interested in contemorary paintings which represented the human form and body. Initially he collected only the works of Greek artists. Later on he started collecting also the work of foreigner painters such as Peter Blake, Frank Auerbach, David Hockney, Paola Rego, Jean Rustin, Pat Andrea, Valerio Adami, Leo Golub, Dado, Mimo Paladino, Antonio Segui, Sam Szafran. Today the collection has 3.500 works. This number makes it impossible for the museum to present all the collection in one permanent exhibition. For this reason parts of the collection are displayed in temporary exhibitions.
