Dakis Joannou
Dakis Joannou collects international contemporary art, a path he links to seeing a Jeff Koons Equilibrium Tank in New York in the mid-1980s. He founded the DESTE Foundation in Geneva in 1983, and it now works from Athens with a project space in a former slaughterhouse on Hydra. Its early exhibitions drew heavily on his collection.
Artists named in the collection
Jeff Koons, Matthew Barney, Maurizio Cattelan, Marcel Duchamp, Urs Fischer, Kiki Smith, Andy Warhol, Kara Walker, Christopher Wool, Andra Ursuta
On record
- DESTE's main Athens building, a renovated 1931 sock factory in Nea Ionia, opened in 2006.
- Jeff Koons designed the exterior of his yacht Guilty.
- In 2025 DESTE, the New Museum and the Benaki Museum staged In a Bright Green Field with 29 emerging Greek and Cypriot artists.
Institutional roles
- Board of trustees, New Museum, New York
- International Council, Museum of Modern Art, New York
- International Council, Tate, London
- Honorary member, International Directors' Council, Solomon R. Guggenheim Foundation
Questions
What does Dakis Joannou collect?Dakis Joannou collects international contemporary art, a path he links to seeing a Jeff Koons Equilibrium Tank in New York in the mid-1980s. He founded the DESTE Foundation in Geneva in 1983, and it now works from Athens with a project space in a former slaughterhouse on Hydra. Its early exhibitions drew heavily on his collection.
Which artists are in the Dakis Joannou collection?Cited sources name works by Jeff Koons, Matthew Barney, Maurizio Cattelan, Marcel Duchamp, Urs Fischer, Kiki Smith, Andy Warhol, Kara Walker.
Can the public see the collection of Dakis Joannou?Yes. Works are shown at DESTE Foundation in Athens, Greece.
Sources
- Dakis Joannou, Wikipedia
- About, DESTE Foundation
- Meet the collectors: Dakis Joannou, Art Basel, 2025
Last verified 2026-10-31.
Related collectors
Eugenio Lopez Alonso, Amalia Amoedo, W. Bruce C. Bailey, Jose Berardo, Miuccia Prada and Patrizio Bertelli, Bernard I. Lumpkin and Carmine D. Boccuzzi