Since 1978, Fani-Maria Tsigakou has been the Curator of Paintings, Prints, and Drawings at the Benaki Museum in Athens. The Benaki houses the finest collection of post-Byzantine art in Greece. Dr. Tsigakou, whose particular field of interest is in European portrayals of Greece around the time of the Greek War of Independence (1821-28), has designed traveling exhibitions in conjunction with the late Melina Mercouri, Greek Minister of Culture; Sir Jeffrey Thomas, the British Ambassador to Greece; and various foreign governments. Most recently she has been organizing an exhibition on the "philhellenes"-Europeans and Americans who fought for the Greek cause during the War of Independence-in Bordeaux, France.
Dr. Tsigakou is the author of three books dealing with philhellenic activity: Through Romantic Eyes: European Images of Nineteenth-Century Greece (ATP Services International, 1991); Lord Byron in Greece (Greek Ministry of Culture and the British Council, 1987); and The Rediscovery of Greece: Travellers and Painters of the Romantic Era (Thames and Hudson, 1981), in addition to innumerable catalogues of ground-breaking exhibitions. The Rediscovery of Greece has been described as "the first book to recreate the reality and myth of Greece as perceived, reflected, and shaped by artists, architects, archaeologists, and writers from England, France, Germany and Italy who made their way to Greece." Dr. Tsigakou is also a specialist adviser for prints and drawings to the National Historical Museum, the Library of the Parliament, and the Gennadeion Library at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens.
Friday's plenary lecture, following the banquet, will be entitled "From the Rebirth of Hellas to the Birth of Greece." If you just can't get enough, Dr. Tsigakou will also present a three-hour "mini-course" the following morning on the subject of "The European Vision of Greece and the Greek Identity in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries." Both presentations will be illustrated by slides from the Benaki's extensive collections.