Museum of Cycladic Art

The Cycladic figurines were carved between roughly 3200 and 2000 BC on the islands of the central Aegean: flat, folded-arm figures of white marble, faces reduced to a single ridge of nose, some barely a hand's length and a few nearly life-size. Rediscovered in the nineteenth century, they startled modern sculptors with their abstraction, and Picasso, Brancusi and Modigliani all borrowed from them. This museum, founded by the collectors Nicholas and Dolly Goulandris, holds one of the most important collections of them, displayed on dark backgrounds in a purpose-built building on Neofytou Douka Street. Upper floors add ancient Greek and Cypriot art, and a glass corridor links the museum to the Stathatos Mansion, a restored nineteenth-century house used for temporary exhibitions.

The main sights

• The Cycladic gallery - folded-arm figurines from the third millennium BC.
• The daily life floor - Greek antiquities arranged by how they were used.
• The Cypriot collection - ancient art of Cyprus across the ages.
• The Stathatos Mansion - a restored neoclassical house joined to the museum.

When to go

Year-round; it is indoors and air-conditioned, which makes it a good midsummer afternoon or a rainy day. Check the temporary exhibition programme, which is often strong.

What to expect

The collection is small compared with the National Archaeological Museum, and the figurines are subtle, repetitive objects that reward slow looking rather than spectacle. Photography rules vary by gallery.

Nearby

Kolonaki's cafes are on the doorstep, the Byzantine and Christian Museum is a short walk east, and the National Garden lies west.

Key facts