The MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection in Thessaloniki, was the recipient of a unique collection from California gifted by John E. Bowlt and Nicoletta Misler, global specialists on the history of Russian avant-garde artists.

The collection includes nearly 37,000 rare items on the East European and East Slavic visual and performing arts from the by John E. Bowlt and Nicoletta Misler Library - including publications, magazines, photographs, recordings - of the arts and particularly avant-garde works produced in Russia, Ukraine, and the countries of the Baltic region, the Southern Caucasian and Central Asian countries. Thematically, the Library focuses on the period 1880-1930, and on the trends and movements of Symbolism and the avant-garde, the museum's art director Maria Tsantsanoglou told the Athens-Macedonian News Agency (ANA-MPA).

She said that the library's extensive holdings, combined with the Costakis collection and archives, will allow the MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection to become a global center for the study and resarch on modernism and the avant-garde movement. John E. Bowlt, she noted, was a member of the international committee for the acquisition of the Costakis collection in 1997, and the donation is a result of their long-term collaboration on the avant-garde movement, which was banned during the Stalin years and is now a very important chapter in the international history of art. Tsantsanoglou said she has known the two donors and university professors for over 30 years, through their work and consulting.

The collection also includes 200 works of art on canvas and paper, mostly from the avant-garde movement, she noted.

The Bowlt-Misler Library is housed in southern California. Unifying all its sections will take place in Thessaloniki, which will become the headquarters of the library and research center at the MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection. It will open as of 2026 at the new spaces the museum acquired at the Lazarists Monastery (Moni Lazariston) in Thessaloniki, with the support of the Greek Ministry of Culture, European programs, and donors from Greece and abroad.