The Board of Trustees of the Benaki Museum, has announced the appointment of Mr Olivier Descotes, Artistic Creation Inspector with the French Ministry of Culture and Communication, as the new Director of the Benaki Museum in Athens.

The announcement reads: “This appointment, effective as of 1 March 2016, is the result of a procedure aimed at attracting international candidacies, which lasted almost a year and to which 82 candidates responded. The procedure was supported pro bono by the executive search firm Egon Zehnder and its goal was to select with the utmost objectivity and impartiality the most capable person to take over the Museum’s future and ensure its development and sustainability in the years to come.

“Mr Angelos Delivorrias has been a brilliant director of the Benaki Museum for the past 40 years and developed the Institution in a remarkable manner. The Museum is and will always be grateful for his determined contribution.

“The selection of Mr Olivier Descotes by the Board of Trustees as the new Director of the Benaki Museum was unanimous, and the Board of Trustees is confident that Mr Olivier Descotes will succeed him in the best of ways, despite the adverse circumstances, our country is facing.

“Mr Descotes is a renowned art director, an experienced cultural administrator as well as a famous philhellene. His cultural and international vision will prove very favourable for the institution and will ensure its strengthening and extroversion.”