Works from some of Greece’s most celebrated painters, including Yiannis Tsarouchis, Alekos Fassianos and Yiannis Moralis will go under the hammer at an art auction set to take place in Paris next month.
The auction, dubbed Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr Greek Sale, is organized by international auction house Bonhams in Paris and London, along with its Athens associates, Art Expertise. The massive sale includes 171 lots, with some of the works having an estimated value of as high as half-a-million euros ($568,000).
The sale leads Yiannis Tsarouchis’ Soldat dansant le zeibekiko, from an Athenian collection, dated 1966-68. According to Bonham’s, the painting is a “triumphant example of Tsarouchis’ art,” estimated at 300,000-500,000 euros ($340,000-568,000).
Tsarouchis embodied in his work the ideal of “Greekness” and created a unique personal style, depicting landscapes, still lives, nudes and allegorical scenes. Since 1957, he had painted young men dancing the zeibekiko -the male dance expressing lovelorn passions, heart-wrenching separations and unfulfilled desires.
Another auction highlight is Yiannis Moralis’ Les orangers, executed in 1994. The acrylic on canvas painting was acquired from the artist by the present owner and exhibited in Athens at the Benaki Museum in 2022. It is estimated at 100,000-150,000 euros ($113,000-170,000).
Moralis has had “a definitive influence on the field of post-war art in Greece, both with his work and teaching. Though interested in a variety of thematic categories, such as landscape and still life, his creative work…is first and foremost anthropocentric,” Bonham states in a press release.
Rancontre d’ une ete by Alekos Fassianos, a student of Yiannis Moralis at the Athens School of Fine Arts, will also go under the hammer (estimate of 50,000-70,000 euros/$56,000-79,000). The painting, executed in 1987, is representative of his work, dominated by the human figure.
“Moralis, Tsarouchis and Fassianos are some of Greece’s most beloved contemporary painters,” Terpsichore Angelopoulou, Director of Art Expertise in Athens said. “These works are the best ambassadors for Greece’s contemporary culture.”
In November 2024, a painting by Yiannis Tsarouchis was sold for over $600,000 (over 571,000 euros) at another Bonhams auction in Paris. The painting known in French as Jeune homme posant comme Eros avec une chaise anglaise (“Young Man Posing Like Eros With an English Chair”) set a new record and became the most expensive work of the Greek modernist painter ever sold.
Other notable works from Greek artists featured in Bonhams auction
This year’s Greek Sale also pays tribute to Greek women, featuring an impressive selection by women artists, such as Opy Zouni, Sophia Vari and Marina Karella.
It includes a 1996 geometric acrylic on wood by Zouni, entitled Colonnes et ombres a l’ horizon, Sophia Vari’s Nu allonge, bronze with black patina mounted on marble and Marina Karella’s La naissance d’ Aphrodite, gesso, acrylic, fabric and silver leaf on resin.
The auction features works from a number of other prominent Greek painters, such as Nikos Engonopoulos, with a 1955 oil on canvas entitled Tragedie a Herodion, one of the finest examples of the artist’s mastery of color, Fotis Kontoglou, with a 1945 oil on canvas painting and Georgios Bouzianis.
More works from Tsarouchis and Moralis are included in the sale, estimated at 50,000-150,000 euros each ($56,000-170,000).
The auction is set to take place on May 21 and selected highlights from the sale will be on preview in Athens from 5-8 May.
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