Dimitris Daskalopoulos

Dimitris Daskalopoulos is a Greek entrepreneur who is known as founder and Chairman of DAMMA Holdings SA, a financial services and investment company. He served as the Chairman of the Board of the Hellenic Federation of Enterprises (SEV) for 8 consecutive years (2006-2014). He is SEV’s Honorary President.[1]

Dimitris Daskalopoulos

Career

From 1983 to 2007, Daskalopoulos was the principal owner, Chairman and CEO of Delta Holdings/Vivartia SA, Greece’s largest food conglomerate. In 2007, Greece’s Marfin Investment Group bought 30 per cent of Vivartia for 550 million euros ($758 million) from Daskalopoulos and Spyridon Theodoropoulos, its founding shareholders.[2]

In addition to his business activities, Daskalopoulos served as Vice President of the Confederation of European Business (BUSINESSEUROPE) from 2013 to 2015, under the leadership of its president Emma Marcegaglia. In 2015, founded diaNEOsis,[3] a research think tank in Greece, which commissions studies and makes policy proposals on the major social and economic issues in Greece; he has been serving as the organization's chairman since its foundation.

Art collection

Daskalopoulos is a collector of contemporary art and has put together the D.Daskalopoulos Collection.[4] His first contemporary purchase was The Painting in the Inner Egg (1993) by Rebecca Horn.[5] On 17 November 1999, he notably purchased a limited-edition replica[6] of Marcel Duchamp's Fountain (owned by Arturo Schwarz) was sold at Sotheby's, New York, for $1.8 million; Daskalopoulos declared that Fountain represented the origin of contemporary art.[7] The price set a world record, at the time, for a work by Duchamp at public auction.[8][9] The collection now comprises over 500 works by 170 artists, including Matthew Barney, Louise Bourgeois, Damien Hirst, Mike Kelley, Paul McCarthy, and Kiki Smith.[10]

Daskalopoulos is also a Vice President of the Board of Trustees of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation; Chairman of the Collections Council of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation, and an active member of the Board of Trustees of the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, the Tate's International Council and the Leadership Council of the New Museum and a founding partner of the Whitechapel Gallery’s Future Fund (2011).[11]

Thematic exhibitions based on the collection have been presented at the Whitechapel Gallery, London (2010-2011), the Guggenheim Museum, Bilbao (2011) and the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, Edinburgh (2012-2013).[12] In 2010, the Guggenheim Museum Bilbao came under fire for announcing its plans for a show consisting of 60 works from the D.Daskalopoulos Collection, with critics claiming that a board member had too much curatorial control over programming, allowing his works to increase in value do to a high-profile exhibition. The museum countered by insisting that no works shown in the show, “The Luminous Interval,” could be sold for three years.[13]

NEON

In 2013, Daskalopoulos founded NEON,[14] a non-profit organization which works to bring contemporary culture in Greece closer to everyone.[15] In 2016, NEON helped renovate the Athens Conservatoire which was later returned to the state,[16] and in 2019 the organization staged an exhibition of work by Antony Gormley at the ancient site of Delos.[17]

Other activities

Recognition

References
  1. "Διατελέσαντες Πρόεδροι < Η Ιστορία μας | SEV". SEV (in Greek). Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  2. Kerin Hope (July 13, 2007), Marfin pays €550m for Vivartia holding Financial Times.
  3. ©, Dianeosis. "About | Dianeosis". Dianeosis. Retrieved 2018-04-09.CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  4. "ABOUT THE COLLECTION - DD Collection". ddcollection.org. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  5. Rachel Spence (April 15, 2011), The power of instinct Financial Times.
  6. Rachel Spence (April 15, 2011), The power of instinct Financial Times.
  7. Vogel, Carol (18 November 1999). "More Records for Contemporary Art". The New York Times. Retrieved 24 November 2018.
  8. Francis M. Naumann, "The Art Defying the Art Market", Tout-fait: The Marcel Duchamp Studies Online Journal, vol. 2, 5, April 2003
  9. Carter B. Horsley, Contemporary Art & 14 Duchamp Readymades, The City Review, 2002
  10. Nate Freeman (July 21, 2014), Greek Collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos to Receive ICI's Annual Leo Award The New York Observer.
  11. "Patronage - DD Collection". ddcollection.org. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  12. "Exhibitions - DD Collection". ddcollection.org. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  13. Nate Freeman (July 21, 2014), Greek Collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos to Receive ICI's Annual Leo Award The New York Observer.
  14. "Home - NEON". NEON. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  15. Mitic, Ginanne Brownell (2017-05-04). "For One Athens Arts Group, the City Is the Space". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2018-05-08.
  16. Amah-Rose Abrams (December 14, 2020), Huge historic tobacco factory in Athens to be renovated into cultural space by 2021 The Art Newspaper.
  17. Amah-Rose Abrams (December 14, 2020), Huge historic tobacco factory in Athens to be renovated into cultural space by 2021 The Art Newspaper.
  18. "ICI 2014 Annual Benefit & Auction - Events - Independent Curators International". curatorsintl.org. Retrieved 2018-04-09.
  19. Nate Freeman (July 21, 2014), Greek Collector Dimitris Daskalopoulos to Receive ICI's Annual Leo Award The New York Observer.
  20. "Dior Sponsors 2018 Guggenheim International Gala and Pre-Party | BLOUIN ARTINFO". www.blouinartinfo.com. Retrieved 2018-12-07.
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