ATHENS – The Museum of Cycladic Art in Athens released a statement on June 3 following the announcement that its Director, Professor Nikolaos Chr. Stampolidis, has been unanimously elected by the Ministry of Education and Science to serve as General Director of the Acropolis Museum.

Museum of Cycladic Art President Sandra Marinopoulou stated the following:

“We want to express our warm congratulations to Professor N. Stampolidis, General Manager of our Museum for 24 years, for his new position. It is a pleasure and an honor for us to see him assume the duties of General Manager at the Acropolis Museum, one of the best Museums in the world. We are sure that he will excel. We thank him for everything he offered to our Museum and we wish him every success.”

Announcements concerning the Museum’s next steps will be forthcoming.

Prof. Stampolidis graduated from the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki with first-class degree in History and Archaeology. He did post-graduate studies at the University of Bonn, Germany (1975-1978) and received his doctorate diploma in Archaeology from the University of Thessaloniki in 1982 for his thesis Ο βωμός του Διονύσου στην Κώ (The Altar of Dionysos on Kos) focusing on Hellenistic sculpture and architecture.

In 1984, he started teaching as a Lecturer at the Department of History and Archaeology of the University of Crete and in 1994 he was elected Full-time Professor. He has served as President of the Department (1991-1993), Dean of the School of Philosophy (1994-1997), co-director of the postgraduate program “The Ancient Greek World” and director since 2005.

Since 1996, Stampolidis also served as Director of the Museum of Cycladic Art. He has organized and curated several archaeological exhibitions including The City beneath the City (2000), Sea Routes… from Sidon to Huelva: Interconnections in the Mediterranean 16th-6th century BC (2003), Magna Grecia – Athletics and the Olympic Spirit on the Periphery of the Hellenic World (2004), Eleutherna: Polis-Acropolis-Necropolis (2004/5), EROS (2009). He has also organized the exhibitions Cicladi: Capolavori di una civiltà Egea (2006) in Rome and Beijing (2008), and Eastern Mediterranean, 16th-6th century BC in Herakleion, Crete (1998) and Rome (2001).

Stampolidis has excavated at Vergina, Akanthos, Rhodes, and Crete. Since 1985, he is conducting a systematic excavation at the site of ancient Eleutherna (West Section III) in Crete. He has organized International Symposia and Conferences and edited their proceedings, sometimes in collaboration with other scholars. He is also the author of eight books including The Altar of Dionysos on Kos (1981; in Greek), The Seal-Impressions from Delos (1992; in Greek), Eleutherna III.1, 2, 3 (1993-1995; in Greek), Reprisals (1996), Aegean Olympic Victors (2001), Olympic Victors in Antiquity (2004; in Greek), Aegean Waves (2007); and Eleutherna West Sector III: a short guide (2008). He has also edited several volumes and has written chapters in additional volumes, including Eastern Mediterranean (1998), Cycladic Light (1999), Cremations in the Bronze Age and the Early Iron Age (2001), The Aegean during the Early Iron Age (2004); Genethlion: Anniversary volume for the Museum of Cycladic Art (2006). His papers (90 in total) have been published in Greek and international academic journals and conference proceedings in Greek, English, and German.