National Gallery - Alexandros Soutsos Museum — Attraction in Athens

This is a disgrace. A brand new museum that took so long to build, and it is all wrong. The only positive thing I have to say about it is that the wifi is fast. Even before you enter it is unclear where you should be. There was a man at security so we stood outside in the heat with others, all unsure what to do. Eventually one couple pushed the door. Next to the fancy security screening machine was...nobody, so we all walked in. Then a man rushed to us to tell us that we can't have the small bottle of water. Ah, no, you CAN have it, just not outside of your bag. "Don't drink from it while in the museum". We purchased our tickets (ten Euro very badly spent as it turned out) but there was nobody checking them, so not sure why we bothered. Worse still there is no sign or anybody to tell you where to start from or how to go about seeing anything.

To make things worse ALL the signage is terrible. It should be a case study of how NOT to make a sign. They don't even have a "you are here" label, it is like some weird inside joke where the visitor has to solve a stupidily similar color coded system.

As it turns out you don't much need signs because, well, there isn't much to see. It is not worth even one Euro, seriously. They have a few truly great and famous paintings and in between them junk, junk, junk. A foregin visitor will leave feeling that Greek art is pretty poor in its production. Even if you know your Greek art history, or ESPECIALLY if you know, you are left baffled how the hell they curated what they are showing. Or maybe they didn't. Maybe it was the result of some stupid bureauvratic Greek civil servant party and politics.

There are vast spaces left empty. Not on purpose in a purposeful way. No, as if they have nothing to show. Truly wasteful consifering the building was meant to be specifically designed to house all this. Lighting ranges from adequate to terrible with many refletions.

If you make the mistake of being disabled or have to push a wheelchair on the external stairwell good luck. With the lack of air conditiong you might die trying.

To top the whole thing off in its impressive show of incompetence, the museum "shop" is surely the worse of its kind in Europe. One struggles to understand how they could screw...

Terrible experience – disrespectful staff and discriminatory behavior

I visited this gallery today and it was by far one of the most unpleasant and humiliating experiences I’ve had while traveling.

First of all, the staff were extremely unfriendly — no one smiled or welcomed us upon entry. Things quickly became worse. I started taking photos and videos, and suddenly a staff member approached me with a stern face and told me that videos are not allowed. However, there were no signs anywhere stating this rule. When I politely asked where it was written, they just mumbled something unclear and forced me to delete what I had recorded in front of them. It felt extremely invasive and degrading.

After that, we were literally followed by multiple staff members throughout the gallery. They stayed 10 meters behind us at all times, watching our every move. It was deeply uncomfortable, as if we were doing something wrong simply by being there.

To make things worse, I witnessed a local visitor recording video without any issue — no one approached him. Yet when I started taking a photo of an artwork from across the room, a staff member yelled at me loudly, accusing me of taking a video. I said multiple times, “I’m taking a photo,” but he continued shouting. Everyone in the gallery turned to look at me. It was deeply humiliating and absolutely unnecessary.

It felt like there was a clear bias — possibly even racial — in how rules were enforced. Locals were left alone, while I was treated like a criminal for doing the same or even less. I paid a significant amount for the ticket and was made to feel unwelcome and disrespected throughout.

As for the gallery itself — honestly, it’s not worth the price. There are far better places in the city that treat visitors with basic respect. I would not recommend this place to anyone. Save your money and...

My partner and I have been travelling in Greece for two weeks, and it's been a truly exceptional experience here.

We were expecting this gallery to be another lovely addition to Athens, however we were pretty much refused entry to the gallery due to my partner's medical exemption for wearing a face covering. It's a very genuine exemption which my partner will be recieving surgery for next month, and wearing a covering triggers heavy bleeding.

We very nearly walked out in shock of how disrespectful the crowd of staff that had gathered around us were.

After a battle, they allowed us into the gallery. We were both very stressed by this point which completely soiled the whole experience.

Other members of staff as we walked around also forced a face covering on her which we had to re-explain with just as much force as the first battle.

Once we reached a good distance through the museum, we discovered staff also not wearing face coverings!

The purpose of this review is to ensure the staff show at least a little understanding for the future, as there are many better ways to spend the entry fee than be in arguments with staff for the first 20 minutes of entry. I hope nobody else experiences what we did this evening.

Note: the art here is well worth seeing. Wish we could...