How many can say how they lived their lives as they dreamed of as young children? How many how did they do everything they wanted? How many experienced absolute fame? How many rise and how many the frightening fall? The one that leaves a huge gap inside you? An invisible "why"?
Very few are these people who managed to experience all of the above. For most it would take four or five lives to be able to live even half of it.
Ο Alexandros Iolas he did it all. He started in Alexandria as a small child with dreams twice as big as his boy to conquer the world. He made most of what he dreamed come true. It started from scratch, reached the top and from there followed the reverse route which made its end bitter, full of pain and sorrow.
Lately on the occasion of decision of the state to turn his villa in Agia Paraskevi into a cultural center, The conversation about his multidimensional and full of mysteries and glamorous life resumed. Who really was Alexandros Iolas?
It is common in most tributes, such as this one, when referring to the hero's childhood, to talk about difficult times that made him stubborn, etc., etc.
In the case of Alexandros Iolas, however, this is not the case. He was born on March 25, 1907 in Alexandria of Egypt. The offspring of a wealthy cotton family, he had everything a child could want.
From a young age, however, he did not show the slightest willingness to continue the family business. He liked art. Anything related to it. He makes his decisions quickly and even before he turns 20, with a unique supply of 10 gold pounds and three letters of recommendation Constantine Cavafy who had Palamas, Sikelianos and Mitropoulos as recipients, leaves for Athens. His grandmother in a piece of advice that if we give her the dimension of prophecy will be confirmed in a creepy way a few years later tells him: "Go to Germany or Italy. Never go to Greece "...
Konstantinos Koutsoudis' journey (as his real name was) to a cosmopolitan life had just begun.
He stayed in Athens only for four years. He then left for Berlin (1931) after first making a short stop in Italy. In Germany he dedicates himself to the art of dance, but only stays for three years. Due to the rise of Nazism, he left it and went to Paris. He comes in contact with great art forms, but also with distinguished artists.
In the mid-30s he moved to New York and became a leading dancer in the newly formed "Ballet Theater Company" and later took over the direction of the "Marquis de Cuevas" ballets.
His love of works of art began in 1931 when, passing outside a gallery, he saw and fell in love with a painting by De Chirico. He came in, gave a generous advance and it took him five years to repay him.
In 1940 he became associated with Theodora Roosevelt, granddaughter of the President of the United States, who was the one who "christened" him Alexander Iola. In 1944, after a passage through Brazil and citing a leg injury, he left dancing forever, in order to turn to his other great love. With the help of his friend the Duchess Maria de Gramon he opened in 1946 his first gallery in New York.
From there on there is only the rise. Everything related to art and New York bore Iolas' signature. He is the one who makes the deal and European surrealists send their works to US galleries. He is the one who discovers his great talent Andy Warhol and it essentially changes the flow of things in the pop art movement across the Atlantic.
He creates the huge network of Alexandre Iolas Galleries in Europe and the USA and through them he tries and to a large extent manages to impose Greek artists such as Gikas, Moralis and Tsarouchis abroad.
In the 1960s, Iolas has already "hit" the top. He is famous and has acquaintances that allowed him to do everything. He decides to spend more and more time in Athens. He forgets the advice-prophecy of his grandmother, about which we spoke at the beginning.
He finds a field in some vineyards in Agia Paraskevi and gradually begins to build what we know today as Villa Iola. Initially 1-2 rooms to transfer some works from abroad and slowly the whole mansion.
A close friend of K. Karamanlis, her Mercury, by Kakogianis, by Tachtsis. He never hid the fact that he was gay and did not hesitate to openly say that "Greeks are the best lovers".
Alexandros Iolas felt invincible and behaved as such. He behaved in an arrogant manner and his speech was characterized by arrogance and arrogance. In Athens there were already rumors of a party of contempt and unthinkable luxury in her villa Saint Paraskevi. But even that did not seem to touch him.
1983 is the year when the countdown will begin. It all started with a torrent of interviews given by the magazine "Woman". He appears as an aristocrat and puts up with everyone and everything. He speaks disparagingly of everyone. From Tsarouchis and Melina (then Minister of Culture), to the Change of Andreas Papandreou and the then President of the Republic K. Karamanlis, while he does not hesitate to say that "it would be better than all of them for us to be ruled by the wing"!
He gathers all the spotlight on him but this time for all the wrong reasons. The media with "Tomorrow" in the foreground unleash an unprecedented campaign of Iola's defilement. It is said that "Avriani" specifically targeted him (as well as the unforgettable Manos Hadjidakis) in order to damage Karamanlis' prestige.
The final blow, however, is given by a transvestite nicknamed "Maria Callas" (a former employee of Iolas who wanted to avenge him in this way for expelling him) which reveals a non-existent scandal that contained accusations of pedophilia, antiquity and of course drugs!
Greece puts Iolas on the sidelines around the same time that the French Republic honored him with the Order of the Legion of Honor!
He spends an interrogation about five months before his death. The indictment is so funny that it never goes to trial. The investigator tells him that the case is closed and that all that remains is to "clear" his name in the press.
Despite his bitterness, Iolas, feeling that his end is near, shouts at two of his personal friends and dictates his will to them, according to which:
"Alexandros Iolas, signed below, today, February 17, 1987, through this letter, I want to state, despite my confirmed disappointments in Greece about my accusation of antiquities and the removal of my name from the press, that I decided after death, all the ancients of my collection to fall as a donation of mine to the Property of the Greek State. As long as I am no longer alive, make sure that my name is restored, because I have never been an archaeologist. With love for Greece ".
Unfortunately for him, his last wish was not fulfilled as the Greek government then refused his offer.
Bitter he left for the USA where he died a short time later (Iolas passed away on June 8, 1987 in a New York hospital, defeated by AIDS). It was then that most of his collection was lost or rather looted. Within a few days a collection of 11.000 rare works of art made… "feathers"!
No one has ever known or said who was behind this looting of millions of euros.
As no one ever knew who was behind the auction that took place on May 25, 2017, in London, by Sotheby's whose officials refused to disclose what legal documents were held by those who appeared as owners of the works of art. No one knows if it was an heir or one of those involved in the looting. The total amount of the auction, however, reached 1.421.503 British pounds ($ 1,845,253).
And this was only a small part of Iolas' collection that the State refused to accept.