Bréal’s Silver Cup, the historic prize presented to Spyros Louis as the winner of the marathon at the first modern Olympic Games in Athens in 1896, returns—after a brief hiatus—to public view in a fully redesigned new exhibition. The Cup, which is owned by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF), is once again on display at the Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC) exhibition space, which has been completely reimagined with digital media to offer an interactive experience for all visitors.
SNF acquired the Cup at auction at Christie’s in 2012, committing publicly to keeping it in Greece while at the same time making it accessible to people around the world. In light of this commitment and while maintaining the SNFCC as its permanent base, the Cup has traveled to many leading cultural destinations, such as the Acropolis Museum of Athens, the Olympic Museum in Lausanne, and the Louvre Museum in Paris in parallel with the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
The reimagined exhibition, curated by museologist Erato Koutsoudaki with research assistance from University of Thessaly Professor of Archaeology Christina Mitsopoulou, unravels the Cup’s rich history. Covering 1835 to the present, the exhibition spotlights the context and the circumstances in which the first modern Olympic Games and the idea of the marathon race arose, featuring well-known figures and unsung heroes; the silver cup as the winner’s prize; and the success of the marathon as an institution that has become omnipresent.
Admission to the exhibition is free and it is accessible whenever the SNFCC is open.
The new exhibition will be accompanied by educational programs for students visiting the SNFCC through its school programs, as well as by enriched short guided tours that highlight the Cup’s history, adding a new dimension to the history of the artifact and tracing the journey from the first modern Olympic Games to the present day.
The exhibition is accessible to people with mobility issues through the equipment available at the SNFCC. Also, through the Smartify application, the exhibition texts are available in a variety of different languages and via audio description.
Photos: Trivision
Contributors
Exhibition design-curation: Erato Koutsoudaki, museologist
Research consultant: Dr. Christina Mitsopoulou, Archaeologist, University of Thessaly & French School of Athens
Assistant curator: Evgenia Efthymiadou
Translation: Daphne Kapsali
Audio description: Kerasia Michalopoulou
Graphic design: ITIS – Vassilis Papadopoulos
Animation: Babis Alexiadis
Digital design and development: Thodoris Rantos
Wall effects: Dimitris Selimis
Digital printing: Whale Graphics SA
Signage: Klironomos SA
Museum construction: Manos Lignos
Coloring: Efthymios Makarounas
Construction works: CORDIA, Facility & Energy Solutions
Production & coordination: Stavros Niarchos Foundation Cultural Center (SNFCC)
An initiative of the Stavros Niarchos Foundation (SNF)