Greek Painting Fetches €1.25 Million at Bonhams — a Record for 20th-Century Greek Art and a Forgery Scandal Reversal

A large-scale 1950s lipid coating by Greek modernist Konstantinos Parthenis has sold for €1.25 cardinal astatine a Bonhams auction successful Paris, mounting the grounds for the astir costly 20th-century Greek artwork ever sold astatine auction.

This merchantability marks a striking reversal for a creator whose marketplace collapsed aft a 2012 forgery suit against Sotheby's.

The work, Poesie (Annunciation), measuring 318 by 158 centimeters, was estimated astatine €300,000 earlier competitory planetary bidding drove the last terms to €1,258,400 including premiums. T

he merchantability came arsenic portion of Bonhams' 48th biannual Greek Sale successful Paris, which grossed much than €4.4 cardinal successful full — the highest corporate effect for a Greek merchantability successful 15 years.

The turnaround for Parthenis is notable.

His estimation suffered lasting harm aft shipping magnate Diamantis Diamantidis filed suit against Sotheby's successful 2012 implicit forged canvases sold successful London.

The marketplace volatility persisted arsenic precocious arsenic 2025, erstwhile different Parthenis enactment failed to pull an opening bid of €140,000 successful Paris.

"This is an organization reset for Greek modernism," said Terpsichore Angelopoulou, manager of Art Expertise, which collaborated with Bonhams connected the sale.

Mrs. Angelopoulou noted that the implicit grounds for Greek creation remains a 1908 maritime scenery by Konstantinos Volanakis, which sold for astir €2 million.

The Parthenis effect is the latest marker of increasing planetary appetite for Greek creation astatine auction, with collectors from extracurricular Greece progressively progressive successful the bidding connected humanities works.

By Lyto Missiakouli