Paris – Jeune homme posant comme Eros avec une chaise anglaise (Youth posing as Eros next to an English chair) by Yannis Tsarouchis (1919-1989) leads Bonhams Greek Art Sale in Paris on Wednesday 20 November. This 1962-1965 painting is a gracious glimpse of Tsarouchis's enchanting universe. Painted in the early to mid-1960s, Tsarouchis's signature male subject was a bold artistic statement offering fresh insights into issues of cultural and sexual identity. Sculpturesque and monumental, this young, posing Greek figure can be considered as a modern Kouros (Estimate: €400,000-600,000).

The Greek Sale is a collaborative sale put together by Bonhams in London and Paris and its associates in Athens, Art Expertise.

Director of Art Expertise in Athens, Terpsichore Angelopoulou, commented: "We are happy to see that both established and emerging collectors from Greece and abroad are enthused by Greek art. Some of the lots we consigned for this sale are true milestones in the history of Modern Greek painting and reflect the unique character of Hellenism in the last 200 years. These works of art make the best ambassadors for Greece's contemporary culture".

Other highlights of the sale, which is made up of 171 lots, include:

• Eroticon, 1997 by Yiannis Moralis (1916-2009). Highlighted by the poetry and eroticism of the curved line, Eroticon recapitulates the artist's long preoccupation not only with the suggestively rendered human form, but also with the musical resonance generated by the combination of shapes and colours. The stark juxtaposition of the fair-skinned female figure with the dark male form, which alludes to Attic black-figure vase painting, charges the composition with a vibrant rhythm and endows it with a classical sense of structure and balance. The painting is offered from a private collection in Athens, and was previously exhibited in March 2002 at Zoumboulakis gallery (Estimate: €300,000-500,000).

• Iphigenia by Constantinos Parthenis (1878-1967). Exhibited in the 1903 Athens International Exhibition, where Parthenis was awarded a silver medal, Iphigénie prompted the following remarks published in the Zoi magazine issue of June 1903: "This woman's head in profile is one of the most exotic you can ever see, coming right out of the brush of a Secessionist." (Estimate: €70,000-100,000).
• Vincenzo Cornaro and Georgios Chortatzis by Nikos Engonopoulos (1907-1985). Folk tales and love lyrics across Europe and beyond tells the story of Vincenzo Cornaro and Georgios Chortatzis (Estimate: €60,000-80,000).
• Harbour scene by Constantinos Volanakis (1837-1907) is a virtuoso work from the master seascape painter. Executed with great spontaneity, the painting demonstrates the artist's sense of space, remarkable precision of detail, harmony of proportion and unity of effect which come together to create a composition of austere beauty. The work is estimated at €40,000-60,000.
• Ali Pasha in the lake of Ioannina by Theofilos Hadjimichael (1871-1934). Estimated at €70,000-100,000, the painting, from 1930, is based on Ali Pasha, the notorious master of Epirus known as the Lion of Ioannina, aboard a rowing boat in Lake Pamvotis.
• Hydra - Landscape II by Nikos Hadjikyriakos-Ghika (1906-1994) is a 1946 oil on canvas formerly in the collection of Professor George Michailides in Athens. This blissful seaward view with the red-roof houses, sloping terrain, jagged stone walls, and derelict windmill surrounded by insular flora is painted from the artist's home studio, the Ghika family's imposing mansion perched above the quaint old harbour of Kamini.

Selected highlights from the sale will be on preview in Athens at Amalias 36, Amalias Ave. 10558 on 4 November from 11am to 3pm and 5 – 7 November from 11am to 8pm and the entire sale will be available to view in Paris at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr, 6 Avenue Hoche on 16 November from 11am to 5pm, 18 - 19 November from 10am to 6pm and 20 November from 10 am to 12am.