Benaki Museum director delivers lecture in London on Islamic art
Matthew Taylor
http://www.ekathimerini.com/4dcgi/news/civ_&xml/&aspKath/civ.asp?fdate=12/02/2005
London report with Greek slant, international interest
Former ambassador Marinos Geroulanos and his wife Aimilia, Nicholas
Egon, founder of the Runciman Lecture, and Edmee Leventis,
representative of Cyprus to Unesco, in the front row of the King’s
College amphitheater.
HELBI
The 14th Runciman Lecture at King’s College and the formal dinner at the
Athenaeum in Pall Mall that preceded it were the high point of early
February for the diplomatic and intellectual elite. Benaki Museum
Director Professor Angelos Delivorrias delivered a lecture on Islamic
art and the Benaki’s collection at its new museum in Kerameikos. At both
events, hosted by artist Nicholas Egon and his Greek wife Matti,
attention focused on the achievements of the Benaki Museum. Among those
present were Aimilia Geroulanou, chair of the Benaki’s board of
management and granddaughter of the museum’s founder Antonis Benakis,
her husband, the former chair Marinos Geroulanos, Greek Ambassador to
London Anastase Skopelitis and his wife Helene. Other Greeks in
attendance were Edmee Leventis, representative of Cyprus to Unesco in
Paris, Professor Maria Vassilaki, Vana Solomonides, the Greek cultural
attache in London, and her husband Keith Hunter. Former British
ambassador to Athens the writer Sir Michael Llewellyn-Smith and his wife
Colette and his predecessor Sir David Miers also honored both events
with their presence. The audience was impressed by slides of the Islamic
art exhibits that were collected by the museum’s founder in Alexandria.
Delivorrias used period photographs to illustrate the remarkable
development of the Benaki Museum which, thanks to his devoted efforts,
has expanded the scope of its collections and established two more
museums, one on Pireos Street and one at Kerameikos, but Delivorrias
modestly passed over his own contribution. Presenting the speaker were
Dr Karim Arafat, president of the Center for Hellenic Studies at King’s
College, and Doris Abouseif, professor of Islamic Art at SOAS University
of London, who explained the museum’s achievements, and Islamic art
expert Michael Rogers, director of the Khalili Foundation. The
amphitheater of King’s College was packed with the Greek colony of
London, actor Nonika Galinea, and philhellenes such as the writer
William St Clair and British Museum Director Ian McGregor. There was no
debate, just warm welcomes and handshakes, since the subject this time
was not the return of the Parthenon Marbles, but the enrichment of an
Athenian museum with exhibits of Islamic art. There was another
dimension to the Greek focus: a dinner given at the Hellenic Center on
February 8 by Matti Egon, founder and chairwoman of the Greek
Archaeological Committee (UK), and her husband Nicholas Egon, to
celebrate nearly 20 years of activity and to thank its sponsors. In that
time, 28 lectures on new archaeological material have been presented and
14 postgraduate students in archaeology from universities in the UK,
Greece and Cyprus have received scholarships. Two new scholarships have
been offered: the A.G. Leventis Foundation Scholarship of 8,000 pounds
sterling each year for three years, in memory of the celebrated
benefactor Dino Leventis, and a 5,000-pound scholarship by Nicholas
Hadjipateras in memory of his late wife Irene. All were members of the
committee. The evening ended with a presentation of a documentary of the
ancient hydraulis made by the European Cultural Center at Delphi.
--
Matthew Taylor
www.mtaylor.co.uk
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