Frissiras Museum, Art museum in Plaka, Greece

The Frissiras Museum is a contemporary painting museum in Plaka, Athens, founded by the attorney and collector Vlassis Frissiras, who began acquiring works by young Greek artists in 1978. Its permanent collection of around 4,000 paintings and sculptures by Greek and other European artists centres on the human form. Because the building is small, the collection is shown in rotating temporary exhibitions.

The museum opened in 2000 and occupies two buildings, one dating to the 1860s and another designed by architect Ernst Ziller in the early 1900s. Both structures were restored and adapted to serve as exhibition spaces for this contemporary art collection.

The collection emphasizes the human form as a central subject, bringing together works by both Greek and international contemporary artists. Visitors encounter paintings and sculptures that explore the body and face in different visual languages.

The museum sits in Plaka, the old town below the Acropolis, at 3 Monis Asteriou street. The collection of around 4,000 works is too large for the building, so only part is on view at any time and the displays rotate; check which exhibition is running before you set out.

Vlassis Frissiras, an attorney, began buying works by young Greek artists in 1978, aiming at figurative painting centred on the human body. He turned to other European artists in the 1990s. Because the museum is small, only part of the roughly 4,000-piece collection is on view at a time, shown in rotating exhibitions.