Antiques Athens Greece Kolonaki – “Lotus Gallery Art & Antiques”
The Antique Store Lotus Gallery Art & Antiques has many kinds of items from different countries! We have been cooperating for the last 30 years with the most reliable collectors of works of art, banknotes, stamps, coins and many other items, as well as with scholars and merchants across Europe! In addition, we have taken part in various exhibitions in Greece and abroad.
Antiques Athens, Greece, Kolonaki “Lotus Gallery Art & Antiques” is an excellent space that includes works of art and antiques from various countries.
Our collection includes unique collectibles, classic, old and modern paintings from Greece, Turkey, Europe, Asia and generally from many countries! Our rich collection includes paintings by some of the best Greek painters, and exceptional sculptures by Greek and foreign artists of global scope!
Our Antique Store “Lotus Gallery Art & Antiques” can make estimates and maintenance for your projects. If you are looking for some objects, paintings, Greek paintings by a specific artist, we can help you. We also buy and sell only authentic antiques from around the world.
In our Antique Store “Lotus Gallery Art & Antiques” are Buying and Selling Greek Artworks, Ceramic, European porcelain vases, Chinese Buddhas, Oriental Artworks, Islamic Artworks, as well as old jewelry, amber, rosaries, Chinese corals, Chinese jewelry, and more! Also, our Gallery specializes in medals, coins, banknotes, stamps, books, and everything else related to philately! With great pleasure we are waiting for you in our antiques store “Lotus Gallery Art & Antiques” in the center of Athens, Kolonaki, 29 Solonos, 10671, Greece.
Antiques Athens Greece Kolonaki – “Lotus Gallery Art & Antiques”
Alexis Kostopoulos
Collector of stamps and works of art.
35 years in Art, a life with a love for Art.
From a young age I had a tendency for collections.
I really liked Greek Art, especially paintings, but at that time I put a lot of emphasis on stamps, coins, banknotes and medals. My first collection was of stamps: 18 years old I bought the first heads of Ermou. From a young age I was a member of various philatelic companies, such as FEA and EFE, but also in various others (Panhellenic Union of Coins, Greek Literary and Historical Archive, etc.)
I took part in exhibitions of stamps and works of art in Greece and abroad and received several awards.
I received my first prize in Thessaloniki when I was 20 years old and it was mainly in the postal history 1828-1900 (: since the founding of the Hellenic Post Office under Ioannis Kapodistrias, when post offices were opened in towns and villages, how letters traveled, what postage paid, on what ships the letters traveled abroad). Exciting research! I have written several articles on stamps and card postal history. At the same time I collected various other objects, such as coins (Kapodistrias, Othonas, George), medals, postcards, books and historical archives. I had the opportunity to meet important people, good scholars and collectors of these periods. If you do not study objects and important collections, you know nothing. I loved everything in art and I always liked to collect books from other authors about everything related to art. At one point I went to the office of a very good art collector, who wanted to show me a work of art and ask for some details about authenticity. I took a small lens (magnifying glass) out of my pocket and immediately shouted: “Finally, I see someone looking at the works correctly”. Everything is judged in detail and quality, whether it is a stamp or a coin, a work of art, a painting, porcelain, etc. Therefore, anyone who deals with art should consult the right people, especially when starting this business.
By 2002 I had collected very beautiful paintings. In 2000 I started professionally with my company, called “PHILARTIA ALEXIS KOSTOPOULOS”, doing various live Auctions in the Hotels Caravel, Hilton, Great Britain, Zappeion. Auctions are probably more exciting than the collections themselves, because you see more things and read more and gain more experience. I have in my possession hundreds of books with studies from all the arts. Unfortunately, due to the crisis, I closed my company and its offices in Greece a few years ago, but I could not stay as a collector for a long time, and that is why I am again in the struggle for study and enjoyment in art. However, I also have my own books of Artworks, and my name is mentioned in the Encyclopedia of Greece among the most important Collectors in Greece.
One of my collections was Chinese Art and it is fascinating with Chinese Porcelain, ceramics, jade, Chinese cloisonne, and various other themes in Chinese culture.
The Chinese were the first to introduce porcelain from the TANG, SONG, YUAN, MING, KANGXI, QIANLONG and YONGZHENG periods in Europe and around the world.
In the arts, Greece is a pioneering country. From antiquity, one thousand and two thousand years before Christ, they had shown in various ways (Mycenaean, Cycladic, Classical period, Greco-Roman period, Olympic Games) that art was something special. It spread to many people, many nations adopted the Greek culture, the Greek letters. Unfortunately at some point these were stopped, we fell into very deep darkness for 400 years. Thanks to some cultures, mainly European, many were saved (stolen), both letters and sculpture and painting. Elsewhere, art was developed, such as in Egypt, Persia, Mesopotamia, Islamic, IZNIK, Kioutacheia, Asian (and Greek artists worked in these places again) and especially Chinese art, which was famous in calligraphy, metalworking and ceramics, and many other arts. In modern times some states have been able to apply Greek arts and letters.
If you did not speak Greek in European salons, you were illiterate, in their culture and especially after Byzantium. Important countries are the Italians, French, English, Spaniards, Germans, Flemings, and many Greeks who left after the destruction of Constantinople, and Byzantium in general, also contributed to this. The Greek has art in his blood, whether it is a painting or a song. After the fall of Byzantium in Greece, there was nothing left reminiscent of the old glory of Greek art, philosophy and culture: ruins, everything burned, the Greeks did not have the slightest education. Only when they went to Venice, Russia, the Danube region, Trieste, France and various other places did they get an education. After the liberation of 1821, Ioannis Kapodistrias tried to organize the state, and with the arrival of Otto, the first great Greek painters appeared, who studied in Germany (Munich), Venice and various other places. (Some modern philosophers have written very correctly that Greece, whether you want to destroy it or disappear, will always exist, will always speak Greek, will always think Greek, will always be in front of them).
So I, knowing some friends, one collecting books, another works of art, another coins, another philhellenes, and various other collections, wanted to know, and I started to deal with everything, to read, to hold them in my hands, to I study everything. I like what I do, to do it with passion. Spending a lot of time in museums abroad, I found, first, that if one takes out the Greek works of art, most of the world’s museums in big cities will become so poor and let them not admit it, and secondly that many countries have unfortunately stolen the Greek art.
In recent years, going to Paris, I have visited the Museum of Asian Art many times, which is fascinating. Also, at the Museum of Modern Art, at the Louvre, as well as museums in England, Italy, Belgium, New York, the Metropolitan Museum, one can learn art very well. Whatever city I go to, I always like to visit a museum. Today, of course, we have the best tool, the internet, where we can see everything. And so I, because I can not sit down, decided to work with Lotus Gallery and offer as much knowledge as I have and other collaborators in Greece and abroad, art historians, art conservators, etc., to give the best result, so that
everything that comes out of this store is correct and genuine. in the Lotus Gallery Art & Antiques has not been selling and will not be sold a work of art that is not genuine.
We try to support Greek art, painting and sculpture. We have, for example, excellent sculptures and famous painters of the interwar period, with the beautiful landscapes they have created. We must definitely support Greek art, Greek culture, letters, because we will always produce very good artists, philosophers, poets, composers: All of them make Greek culture special. I love both Greece and the art of Greece, which has such a long history.
However, I’m a big fan of any art form, and I wish that for you too.
We humbly wait for you in our store. Alexis Kostopoulos
Marina Kiseleva
Art historian, conservative appraiser and collector.
Marina was born and raised in Russia. She comes from a large military family and her parents are art connoisseurs. Her father is a collector of paintings and antiques. That’s why Marina, from a young age, began to be interested in the history of art and began to collect various antiques. She later began studying art history. She moved to Greece where she continued to study art and antiquities. During her studies she has visited various museums, traveled to various parts of Europe to learn art. When she finished her studies, she decided to stay and work in Greece. Her hobby and love for art has made it a profession! The Marina speaks 3 languages: Russian, Greek and English, and when you meet her you will see that she is a kind, friendly and honest person.
Where is our Antiques store “Lotus Gallery Art & Antiques” :
Our Gallery is located about 400 meters from Syntagma Metro and 1 to 2 minutes from the No 3 trolley stop at the American stop.
Our company specifically finds Solonos 29 and Dimokritou 9 in the beautiful Kolonaki and very close to the beautiful pedestrian street of Bucharest.
The visitor can come to our store on foot, taking a wonderful walk and shopping among the dozens of beautiful and quality shops in Bucharest that, looking up, overlooks the beautiful mountain of Lycabettus.
Antiques Athens, Greece, Kolonaki “Lotus Gallery Art & Antiques”
