One of the best and least known FREE museums in New York City re-opens today after a year-long renovation. The Onassis Cultural Center museum is in the lower lobby of 645 Fifth Avenue, also known as Olympic Tower, built by Aristotle Onassis in the 1970s, when he was married to former First Lady Jackie Kennedy.
It is the only museum in NYC – maybe the world – that you enter through an office building lobby, although this lobby is an airy atrium lined with museum-quality reproductions of Greek friezes and seating to relax and enjoy them.
The new exhibit is Greek Monsters, and traces things that have scared us, inspired authors from Aristotle to Shakespeare, and are just plain fascinating.
The exhibit is open through July, 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. daily. Onasis Cultural Center website.
645 Fifth Avenue is across 51st St. from St Patrick’s Cathedral, on the spot that was the home of upscale NYC department store Best & Co.
photo courtesy Beetroot for Onasis Cultural Center
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