A new museum of modern art is set to open its doors in Athens in 2018. The museum belongs to the Basil & Elise Goulandris Foundation, and will contain works previously displayed at the foundation’s Museum of Contemporary Art on the island of Andros (the birthplace of the famous shipowner and art collector Basil Goulandris).

Goulandris and his wife Elise were known for their love of art, particularly the visual arts, and helped shape the art world in Greece. With hard work, and thanks to the couple’s personal relationships with artists and art dealers, they managed to acquire many rare paintings from the 19th and 20th centuries by artists such as Pablo Picasso, Henri Matisse, Vincent Van Gogh, Claude Monet, Auguste Renoir, Wassily Kandinsky, Georges Braque, and Auguste Rodin. Many of the pieces in the exceptional collection previously decorated their private homes in Paris, Lausanne, and Gstaad. The collection also contains works by some of Greece’s finest artists.

The new museum will be the latest addition to the art scene in the neighborhood of Pangrati, which is slowly turning into a cultural hub, with the Benaki Museum, the Byzantine and Christian Museum, and the Athens Conservatoire as close neighbors. The museum will contain a permanent exhibition, rooms for visiting exhibitions, cafes and restaurants.