Her paternal grandparents were originally from Chora, Kythira, and met in New York. Her grandmother came to the United States as a bride in her teens to marry her grandfather after seeing his photograph. Her grandfather was a tailor and, as she herself has said, counted Henry Fonda and the Rockefellers among his clients. Her mother’s parents were from Asia Minor.
Christina Kontoleontos, a second-generation Greek-American, is the curator of the Behrakis Wing of Greek and Roman Art at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Her research, archaeological, and academic work is internationally recognized. As we learn from a post by the Consul General of Greece in Boston, Ms. Kontoleontos took the oath of citizenship as a Greek citizen at the Consulate General of Greece in Boston.
She has played a pivotal role in promoting Greek culture internationally, as she radically revitalized twelve Greek galleries at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston with masterful curatorial skill. She worked for three years on the transformation of the museum’s collection, featuring artifacts from Classical and Byzantine antiquity that trace the evolution of art from the Mycenaean period through the Fall of Constantinople and beyond. In this transformation of the collection’s presentation, the focus was on highlighting Byzantium, from the founding of Constantinople through its fall to the Ottomans. The opening of the galleries located in the Museum’s Behrakis Wing—which offer a new, comprehensive narrative of Greek history—took place at the end of last year.
The fourth-largest museum in the United States and the magnificent Behrakis Wing
The renovations were made possible by a broad coalition of 24 donors led by George and Margo Behrakis, the family-run Krupp Foundation, Richard and Nancy Lubin, and an anonymous donor.
It is also worth noting that the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston is the only museum in the greater New England region that offers this opportunity. As reported by GreekReporter, it all began in 2009 when Greek-American philanthropist George Behrakis and his wife Margo donated $10 million to the Museum of, the fourth-largest museum in the United States.
There are five galleries in the heart of the Behrakis Wing, where nearly 500 objects are on display, dating from the dawn of Greek art (around 1100 B.C.) through the fall of Constantinople in the 15th century and up to the present day.
With spaces featuring natural light, innovative displays, interactive experiences, and captivating recreations of an ancient Greek temple and a Byzantine church, visitors of all ages can learn about the heritage of these ancient civilizations and understand their significance.
What is also of great importance is that there is also a «dialogue» between ancient artifacts and contemporary art of the 20th and 21st centuries, with artists such as Cy Twombly drawing inspiration from the past.
Acknowledgments from the Consulate
As the Consulate reports, warm thanks for organizing the ceremony in honor of Christina Kontoleontos are due to the citizenship services of the Ministry of the Interior, under Secretary General Mr. Athanasios Balerba, for their cooperation with the Consulate General in Boston in bringing about a successful outcome to yet another very difficult naturalization case that nearly stalled due to the FBI’s inability to read the fingerprints of the Greek national. Thanks are also due to researcher and philologist Eleni Harou from Kythira, who researched and traced the honoree’s family tree back to the 17th century.
