Friends gather for unveiling of bronze statue of Onassis
In 1922, September 14 or 15, according to the new calendar, boats carrying refugees arrived from the shores of Smyrna, which was in flames. One of the refugees was Aristotle Onassis, son of wealthy tobacco merchant Socrates Onassis, who had lost all his fortune and was in a Turkish prison. Aristotle Onassis went to Argentina where he laid the foundations of his legendary fortune. He traveled continually and he bought the island of Skorpios so as to have his very own raft on the sea. Opposite Skorpios is Nidri, Lefkada, an unknown fishing village until Onassis put it on the international map. Paparazzi came by plane, helicopter and speedboat. Onassis, his family and friends used to cross over to Nidri to eat fish, listen to music and chat with the fishermen. In memory of those times The Friends of Aristotle Onassis in Nidri collected money and commissioned sculptor Efthymios Kalevras to make the bronze statue of Onassis that will be unveiled tonight after the memorial ceremony in the local church by Stelios Papathadimitriou, the president of the Onassis Foundation. The Athens benchmark index lost 5.38 percent to 2,248.39 points. For the week it gave up 15 percent or 399 points. Since Tuesday’s terrorist attack, it has lost 12 percent. It is an overreaction, but investors are fearing Monday’s US open and discounting it opening lower, said head analyst at Kappa Securities Nikos Galoussis. Banks and telecom stocks lost 4.92 percent and 4.22 percent respectively. The Athens bourse’s FTSE/ASE-20 index of blue chips fell 4.86 percent to 1,268.79 points. The FTSE/ASE-40 index of mid-caps lost 8.26 percent while small-caps dropped 8.81 percent.
