Goulandris Museum of Cycladic Art

Stand still for a moment and listen. The traffic of central Athens is only a short walk away, but in here the sound drops to a low hum. The light is soft and even. Inside the glass cases, small white figures stand with their arms folded across their bodies. Their faces are smooth ovals, with only a long straight nose. They look calm and patient, and they are around five thousand years old.

You are in the Museum of Cycladic Art, in the Kolonaki district of Athens. It began as a private passion. Nicholas and Dolly Goulandris, members of a well-known Greek shipping family, collected ancient art from the islands of the Aegean Sea. In 1986 they opened their collection to the public. What started in a family's hands became one of the most important places in the world to study early island culture.

First, a word about the name. The Cyclades are a group of islands in the Aegean, south-east of the Greek mainland. Naxos, Paros, Milos and Santorini are among them. The name comes from the Greek word for circle, because the islands seem to form a ring around the sacred island of Delos. During the Early Bronze Age, roughly the third millennium before the common era, a remarkable culture grew up here.

These island people had no writing that we know of. They left no names, no kings, no recorded history. What they left were objects. There are marble bowls, clay pots and bronze tools. Most of all, there are the figurines. Many are carved from the fine white marble of islands like Naxos and Paros. Their makers shaped them with tools of harder stone and polished them with abrasives such as emery, a gritty mineral found on Naxos.

Now look closely at the most common type. Archaeologists call it the folded-arm figure. The body is slim and flat. The head tilts slightly back. The arms are folded, usually the left above the right. The feet often point downward, as if the figure is standing on tiptoe. This detail suggests that many were not made to stand up at all. They were probably meant to lie down.

Here is the first surprise. These figures were not always white. Look carefully, and on some pieces you may see faint traces of colour. Researchers have found evidence of red and blue pigment. Painted eyes, painted hair and patterns on the face and body were once common. The pure white beauty we admire today is partly an accident of time. The original makers saw something much brighter.

What were these figures for? The honest answer is that nobody knows for sure. Many come from graves, so some scholars link them to burial and to beliefs about death. Others suggest they had a role in ritual or represented a goddess or ancestor. Some show signs of repair in ancient times, which tells us that people valued them and kept them for a long time. Beyond that, the purpose remains an open question.

That uncertainty has a sad cause. In the twentieth century, as collectors around the world began to prize these figurines, many ancient cemeteries in the islands were dug up illegally. When an object is taken from the ground without record, its story is lost. We no longer know which grave it came from or what lay beside it. For this reason, the museum has also become a voice for protecting archaeological sites.

The second surprise connects the ancient past to the modern world. In the early twentieth century, artists in Paris and London looked at Cycladic figures and saw something new. Constantin Brâncuşi, Amedeo Modigliani, Pablo Picasso and the British sculptor Henry Moore all admired this kind of simple, abstract form. When you look at these smooth heads, you may recognise the elongated faces of Modigliani's paintings. Art that is five thousand years old shaped the look of modern sculpture.

The Cycladic collection is the heart of the museum, but it is not the whole story. The upper floors carry the visitor forward in time. You can find ancient Greek art, from painted pottery to bronze objects. There is also a strong collection of art from ancient Cyprus, the island in the eastern Mediterranean. One floor focuses on daily life in antiquity. It shows how people ate, worked, dressed and mourned. Take your time with these rooms.

When you are ready, follow the glass corridor to the neighbouring building. This is the Stathatos Mansion, a neoclassical house from the late nineteenth century. It was designed by Ernst Ziller, a German-born architect who shaped much of Athens in that period. Neoclassical means a style based on the columns and calm proportions of ancient Greek temples. Here the museum often holds temporary exhibitions, sometimes of modern and contemporary art.

Notice the contrast as you walk between the two buildings. The main museum is modern, with clean lines and quiet, controlled lighting. The mansion has tall windows, decorated ceilings and a grand staircase. One building was made to protect fragile objects. The other was made for the social life of a wealthy Athenian family. Together, they connect the city of today with the city of the nineteenth century, and with something much older still.

Before you leave, return for a moment to one of the folded-arm figures. Look at the line of the nose, the gentle slope of the shoulders, the small marks where a hand once worked the stone. Someone on an island far out in the Aegean held this marble and shaped it slowly. Outside, the streets of Kolonaki carry on with their cafés and shops. But for a few more seconds, let that quiet face stay with you.