Museum of Cycladic Art

The Museum of Cycladic Art on Neofytou Douka 4 in the Kolonaki neighborhood of Athens holds one of the most refined and visually striking museum collections in Greece — the ancient marble figurines of the Cycladic civilization (circa 3200–2000 BCE). These enigmatic sculptures, typically of women with arms folded across the abdomen and heads tilted back, were produced on the Cycladic islands and deposited in graves. Their radical simplification of form — flat, geometric, intensely abstract — struck 20th-century artists including Picasso, Brancusi, and Modigliani as uncannily modern, and the influence is unmistakable in early 20th-century Western art. The museum's Cycladic collection was assembled by Nicholas and Dolly Goulandris from the 1960s onwards and includes over 350 figurines ranging from palm-sized to near life-size, displayed in dramatically lit cases in a beautiful neoclassical mansion. The upper floors extend into an attached historic Stathatos Mansion and cover ancient Greek art from Bronze Age through Hellenistic periods, a Cypriot collection, and contemporary exhibitions in the modern wing. The museum café and shop are both excellent; the shop carries high-quality replica figurines and Greek art publications. The prominent Harp Player figurine — an early Cycladic male figure playing a triangular harp — is among the museum's most celebrated objects. Thursday evening hours until 8PM are popular for after-work visits.