The Mihalarias Gallery and Studio, housed in the fully-restored Neo-Classical mansion previously owned by the prominent Stathatos family, has become the focus for a renewed interest and vitality in Grecian art.

"Restoration is a philosophy, not actually a job," says Mihalarias. "To be a restorer you have to commit yourself to that philosophy even if it means you are not always popular. The art must always come before the owner. I say to people, 'Although you own this icon or painting which is already 500 years old, you are going to be dead, together with me. The decision on its restoration is not yours, actually, it is mine, because I believe I know exactly how it should be done. If you want it done differently, you either do it yourself or take it to someone else'. This can be very difficult to say to a wealthy man who is used to people saying yes, but I am not a yes man and I never will be.

"The idea is that you could restore the Parthenon, make it perfect, but it would no longer be the Parthenon. Restoration should only be conservation. The old restorers used to fool people; they would copy one half of a painting to replace the damaged half. While the owner may have been pleased by their work, the painting is no longer the sole work of the original artist. One must let the imagination of the people complete the image for often the imagination is much better than reality. A lot of people start cleaning up a painting as soon as they get it in their studio, but this is hard of heart. You must take the time to get to know an object. Gradually a relationship forms between the object and the restorer and the object comes to ask of the restorer what needs to be done."

Mihalarias was introduced to the art of restoration when he was only thirteen years old. On his way home from school, he watched an old man from his neighbourhood in Athens cleaning an icon with a piece of cotton wool soaked in alcohol. Even with such primitive means, the transformation of the painted surface which occurred inspired in young Stavros a special interest in the restoration of art which overcame his own artistic ambitions.

"It was a magical moment for me because as he washed this black piece of wood, beautiful colours were revealed and it was like a miracle, as if a photograph was developing before me. I had been interested in painting since I was six when one of my teachers told me I was drawing very well and that I should become an artist, which was unheard of in Greece at that time. But from that moment on I knew I wanted to do the same as this old man: become a restorer of icons. I told the old man this and he said he couldn't help me because it was a very special technique which he didn't really know much about, but he said I couId watch him work after school if I washed his brushes for him. In two years I learned what he knew and became quite good at painting icons, but I wanted to learn more about the correct techniques.

"In 1959 when I was fifteen, an icon restorer who worked for the Athens Byzantine Museum returned from Italy and I went to him and asked him to help me. I told him he couldn't turn me known because this is what I wanted to do and nobody else could teach me. He was so impressed that he took me on as his assistant.

"That summer we went for the first time to work in a church outside Athens in the mountains. It was all painted with frescoes. It was the first assignment from the Byzantine Museum to restore a church outside Athens. We arrived there on the top of this mountain and it was a beautiful church but all the frescoes were black. We started cleaning them and to me it became a kind of mission. It was while working on that church and seeing the transformation that occurred, that I decided that instead of serving whatever talents I possessed, it was far more important for me to serve the talents of others."

Mihalarias soon became head of a specialised team for the conservation and restoration of churches and monasteries all over Greece and later the chief restorer for the Byzantine Museum. By 1965 the restoration trade was becoming very important in Europe and America and Stavros decided to leave Greece to further his experience by working in the restoration workshops of important museums such as the Prado, the Rijks Museum, the Louvre and the Metropolitan. With a UNESCO scholarship, he perfected his knowledge and technique by studying in the Institut Royale du Patrimoine Artistique. In 1969 while working for the Victoria and Albert Museum, Mihalarias decided to open his own studio of fine art restoration in London.

"I found an old studio that belonged to a close friend of mine and gradually as I became well known as a restorer, I gained people's trust and received commissions to work on difficult restorations of important and valuable works of art. Sometimes I postponed restoring paintings I received because I knew that when I had finished my work, the physical owner of a painting would come and take it away. When I was asked to work on a Van Gogh, a number of articles were written about me and I realised the power of the press. In the circles of the art world in London internationally I became quite well known and by the age of thirty I was not wealthy but I was comfortable, being paid a lot of money for jobs that five years before I would have done for nothing."

As Mihalarias' reputation spread throughout the art world, he was able to expand his involvement into other fields and began dealing in and promoting fine art. He was invited to lecture at international conferences, seminars and universities such as the Sorbonne, and the Ecole des Hautes Etude of which he was elected associate director. He also found himself in a position to begin promoting Greek art and its unique tradition.

"When I arrived in London very few people were interested or aware of Greek art and the impression was that it was little more than a primitive tradition. I consider Greek art to be the only continuous living tradition of painting because after rendistic paintings came the Greco-Roman portrait paintings which of course became icons.

The history of Greek art did not stop in 1453 with the fall of Constantinople because the icon painters left for Crete which until 1699 was protected by the Venetians, so it has always been a continuous tradition. I fight for this, gently, and many people who have a small collection of icons do appreciate that the Renaissance had already begun in Byzantium before in Italy."

When the Stathatos mansion came onto the market in 1984, Mihalarias saw the opportunity to make one of the dreams of his youth a reality.

"When I was in the Byzatine Museum in '62, Heleni Stathatos who was a great collector and patron of the arts, came to the museum and watched me at work restoring a wall painting. Typical of me, I asked her there and then if I could come to her house and see her collection and she agreed. The next day I knocked on the front door and was led inside where it was miraculously beautiful. There were icons, lamps and the collection of jewellery which is now in the Archaeological Museum. It became a dream of mine that one day I might be in a position to be able to buy the house."

Mihalarias' purchase of the Stathatos mansion attracted quite a deal of attention amongst Greek society as he was considered an unknown expatriate buying the landmark home of one of Greece's most prominent families. Soon after taking possession, he held a press conference and declared, "In this house I am going to do something which will be good for Greece. I am going to create a private institution for Greek Art, but it will run on money and if it is not viable, I will close it down and sell the house." For the next two years while he completed the restoration of the house and established his gallery and studio, he received no press. When he finally announced a cocktail party to celebrate the gallery's opening, the response was phenomenal.

"Nobody had seen what I had done in the two years and they came in their thousands' politicians, industrialists, actors - everyone was immaculately dressed. Why did they come? Because I had a secret, they were more than a little curious and it was going to be revealed. The Director of the Victoria & Albert Museum in London used to say that if you want to have a successful exhibition it has to be like a circus. You put the elephants out and the belly dancers and the clowns and then you head off back into the tent and the people follow you. Once you get them into the gallery, it is up to then whether or not they understand the works. This is the new way to approach people with art. The old way, the very serious, mystical way, is not right for today and has to change."

At this inaugural function, none of the works of art on show were offered for sale because they were all from Mihalarias' private collection. "I had invited people to see what I had done and also for them to form their own impressions of who I am and what I am about. I didn't want my exhibition to be a commercial venture. I said, "If you see something which is of interest to you, come back another day and we can discuss it'. I also announced that I was going to host a public auction. There was no auction houses in Greece and if there is one thing that lends a lot of energy to art it is when people can buy and sell art easily, without having to negotiate with the dealers of a gallery on price. This is especially so with the Greeks who do not like to be questioned concerning their finances."

Mihalarias encountered a number of difficulties in the nine months required to organise the auction, struggling to coordinate an industry that was virtually nonexistent. However the public's response was very encouraging with many people coming to see the exhibition in the weeks prior to the auction.

"In the end the auction was very successful and we will now do two or three auctions per year because it is so vital to encourage commercial participation in the arts. I have had my run with museums and am totally convinced that the correct approach for stimulating artists and patrons is to start projects with the free enterprise mind. Art has always been promoted by businessmen, by dealers, by entrepreneurs. Today even the museums are run like businesses. The curators are buyers and dealers and somehow this is the right approach.

"There are Greek painters today who could stand alongside other international artist but like everyone else, like musicians, architects, writers, they need a manager or promoter, a public relations person and unfortunately Greek painters like to think the are their own promotions company and business managers. They like to sell their paintings themselves from their own studios. As far as I know there are no Greek painters who have contracts with dealers or galleries. In other places it is unheard of - to my knowledge there has not been a single famous modern artist who has not been associated with an independent gallery. It is the dealer who first makes an artist famous.

"It is unfortunate that until now Greek painting has not achieved what it should have - we have no industry to speak of. Greece has a history of selling art - in ancient times Greeks made vases and icons and sold them throughout the world. Our industry now is the elements; the weather, the sea. With the help of the government and the artists we could establish the Greek name as an important part of the artistic world. The task at hand is too big for one man: it is a project for the Minister of Culture."

Mihalarias plans to concentrate on organising collections of Greek art to be exhibited around the world in places with high Greek populations. In this way he will be able to continue enhancing its profile internationally and at the same time provide a service to his countrymen whilst maintaining his commitment to commercial ventures.

"I do not intend to lose any money whilst promoting our art overseas, not because I can't stand losing money but because if you don't lose you must win. I am quite content with what I have achieved in my career to date. I am able to maintain my studios in London and here in Athens, I continue to accept select restorations, and I have an art collection which is significant on an international scale. I have quite a number of Greek paintings from the 19th century, some very good Philhellenic subject paintings, icons of course, and embroideries from the 3rd and 4th centuries.

"I may hold on to items in my collection for twenty years and yet I still do not regard myself as a collector as the name suggest because I never want to feel possessive about art. I say, 'yes, I have this painting at the moment but I might sell it one day, not because I could make more money, but because I realise I am only its keeper, its guardian. When I go, I will not be able to take it with me."