Mega-Collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos Gifts Over 350 Artworks to Four Museums in Three Countries

"The collection has to have a future beyond my lifetime, and the artworks have to have a life beyond that," he said.

Three years ago, Greek collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos, having amassed more than 500 artworks by 220 artists over two decades, decided to stop collecting. Last September, he told Artsy,

“My collection is big enough and important enough that it requires attention to what will happen to it in the future.”

Daskalopoulos will be donating more than 350 works of art by 142 artists, of which 140 will be given to the National Museum of Contemporary Art (EMST) in Athens, roughly 100 in a joint gift to the Guggenheim and MCA Chicago museums, and 110 to the Tate.

"I hope and pray that this action finds many imitators. We have many significant collectors. I invite them to adopt this example," Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis announced on Wednesday, regarding the decision by art collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos to donate a significant part of his collection to four public museums in Greece and abroad, ANA reports.