Onassis Library Art

If the rare publications, collections, foreign-language books, and archival documents encapsulate the significance with which the Onassis Foundation endows education and culture, then the works of art that welcome and escort the visitors during their passage from the various spaces of the Onassis Library confirm this commitment.

Spanning a wide range of artistic movements and historical periods that remain in constant dialogue with each other, this collection of artworks―which is part of the Onassis Collection―invites the gaze to immerse itself in history. From the tempera works on a gold background by the leading exponent of the Cretan School, the icon painter Theodore Poulakis, the Study on “Winter” by Yannis Tsarouchis, the “Large Studio with Easels and Sculpture” by Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika, the “Landscape―The Garden of Olives” by Konstantinos Parthenis, the “Ships on the Horizon” by Konstantinos Volanakis, and the special place “The Coronation of the Virgin” by El Greco occupies, to the work-symbol of hope, “Perspective”, by Vlassis Caniaris and works by the multimedia artist Lucas Samaras, each work of art has a story to share with each gaze that encounters it.

Finally, one of the most recognizable objects in the Onassis Library, and one bearing a unique emotional and historical value, is the Steinway & Sons Baby Grand model "S" piano made in 1952, which was purchased by Aristotle Onassis for Maria Callas and was placed on his yacht, “Christina”.