120 Greek paintings go under the hammer in Friday auction
Following the Bonhams sale of Greek art that took place recently in London, an auction of Greek art of the late 19th and 20th centuries is coming up on Friday, this time by a Greek auction house, the Petros Vergos auctioneers. The 120 works offered for sale will be on view at the Athens Plaza Hotel from today to Thursday. Among the highlights are «The Country House of K. Dimitriou on Pelion» (estimated at 100,000-150,000 euros) by Constantinos Volanakis, the great, late 19th century painter of mainly maritime subjects. There is also a landscape painting by Constantinos Maleas estimated at 20,000-30,000 euros and a naif-like oil painting on wood by Theophilos at 50,000-70,000 euros. The auction includes works by some of the biggest names in Greek art, such as Constantinos Parthenis, Nikiforos Lytras, Yiannis Moralis, Yiannis Tsarouchis, Nikos Nikolaou and Periklis Vyzantios. The inclusion of works by some contemporary artists makes for an unusual, though rather uneven mix. This is the fifth auction of Greek paintings that Petros Vergos auctioneers have organized so far. Their specialty is rare books and manuscripts, of which Petros Vergos has been a collector since the mid-1960s. One of the most important works sold by the Greek auction house is Rigas Velestinlis’s «Charter of Greece,» published in Vienna in 1797 and auctioned off at 77,500 euros. Preview today, 7 p.m. Viewing times: tomorrow, Thursday, 1-10 p.m, at the N.J.V. Athens Plaza Hotel (Syntagma). Auction: Friday, 7.30 p.m. For information, call Petros Vergos auctioneers on 210.161.4897.
