Paris – Eroticon by Yiannis Moralis, the master of geometric abstraction, was the top selling lot at Bonhams Greek sale in Paris on Wednesday 24 April. It sold for €559,200, doubling its estimate. This sale realised €3 million with 70% sold by lot and 99% sold by value. A further Greek sale is planned on 21 November 2024.

The Greek Sale is a collaborative sale put together by Bonhams in London and Paris and Art Expertise, its associates in Athens. Art Expertise Director, Terpsichore Angelopoulou, said: "This was a very strong sale with many pieces far exceeding their estimates after fierce bidding battles in the saleroom, on the telephone and online. I am not surprised that the bidding was so intense especially for Moralis' and Tsarouchis' masterpieces and that they sold for such impressive prices."

Formerly in the D. Taktikos collection in Mytilene, Le maréchal du Péloponnèse Theodoros Kolokotronis by Theofilos Hadjimichael (1871-1934) sold for €165,500.This monumental work which pays tribute to the leading military hero of the War of Independence, is one of the few surviving wall paintings by Hadjimichael, transferred onto panel from its original wall in a village on the island of Lesvos (Mytilene).

Other highlights of the sale included:

• Poète et villageois oil on canvas executed in 1965 by Nikos Engonopoulos (1907-1985) sold for €102,000, twice its estimate. Captured in dazzling Byzantine colours, flooded with light, and bathed in a translucent atmosphere of clarity and glow, the artist declares that this archetypal environment is a stunning presence, while the sea is never far away.
• Petite fille lisant (Girl reading) by Georgios Jakobides (1852-1932), a delicate oil on canvas painted circa 1882, considered as a museum-quality jewel, sold for €63,900.
• A captivating Portrait of a young Greek male, Yannis Tsarouchis's signature subject, sold for €82,950, more than four times its estimate.
• From the former collection of Alexander Iolas, a paper depicting Zephyros – Eros by Yannis Tsarouchis sold for €61,360, twice its estimate.
• Glowing with a riot of dazzling colour, Alexander the Great by Andy Warhol sold for €152,800, more than twice its estimate.