History of the Museum

Why the Yannis Gaïtis and Gabriella Simossi Museum in Ios? 


Yannis and Gabriella both come from the Aegean: my father from Tinos, a fertile land for many artists, my mother from Milos and Euboea.

However, when I had to choose the resting place of my father, who died young, at the age of 61, I chose Ios. Here I built a small white chapel near his house, where they both rest today.

Yannis Gaïtis, the Athenian, discovered Ios during a trip with his friend Jean-Marie Drot. They both loved the place and decided to “make a pact with the island and put down roots in this rocky soil”. Very soon, in 1964, Gaïtis designed and supervised the construction of Jean-Marie Drot’s house on Ios, while Gabriella Simossi made imposing sculptures, inside the house and outside on the terraces facing the sea.


A few years later, Yannis Gaïtis started building his own house, on the other side of the same small bay. The two houses still stand facing each other today, carving in this remarkable space an eternal complicity.

Yannis patiently built his house for almost ten years, a work of happiness and freedom. There he worked on his paintings until his death on 22 July 1984, a few days after the opening of his major retrospective exhibition at the National Gallery of Athens. Melina Mercouri, then Minister of Culture, honored him as citizens who had glorified their city were honored in ancient Greece.

The will to keep my parents’ work alive was imperative for me, and the island of Ios was an obvious and faithful choice.  

In 1997, my partner Jacques Charrat and I began the first sketches for the architectural design of the museum. I was delighted that my mother was able to see the model of the future museum before her death on 27 May 1999, just before the opening of her retrospective exhibition in Paris at the Couvent des Cordeliers.


Thanks to the unconditional support of the Municipality of Ios at every step, and with the valuable help of the Ministry of Culture, this deep dream of mine became a reality, since the construction of the Museum was completed in 2009. With Georgios Poussaios, with whom we started together, then with Michalis Petropoulos, and finally with Gkikas Gkikas, whose continuous efforts made the completion possible.

Without a doubt, Gaïtis and Simossi, my beloved parents, taught me that it was necessary, every day, tirelessly, with determination, and sometimes to the point of exhaustion, to repeat the same gestures in the service of a project and a noble cause, knowing that in the end this is the only stance in life.

These gestures of all, this convergence of so much energy and goodwill, are the beginning of this Museum, which will, I hope, mark the inclusion of Gaïtis and Simossi in the national heritage of the Greek people and allow art lovers to better understand the diversity, richness and modernity of their work.

On September 14, 2024, the Gaïtis – Simossi Museum was officially inaugurated, nearly 27 years after the initial conception of the idea and the architectural study. I hope that the works donated to the Museum by myself and my children, along with the generosity of the Municipality of Ios and its Mayor, Gikas Gikas, will allow visitors from all corners of the world to discover this museum, which is truly unique in all of Greece.

Loretta Gaïtis