A Greek deputy attacks paintings deemed blasphemous and “repugnant”

A Greek deputy, elected from extreme right training, was arrested on Monday after having attacked works of art which he considers blasphemous in one of the main museums of Athens, we learned from the police. After entering the national Pinacotheque, Nikolaos Papadopoulos, elected from the Niki party, broke a protective window and tried to remove two exposed works claiming that they “Insulted religion”according to the same source. He was arrested by the police; He could be prosecuted for aggravated vandalism, according to the local press.

Nikolaos Papadopoulos claimed his action on social networks, believing that the works that he caught were “A blasphemy of our Virgin”. He described as “Repagnant” these exhibited works which “Brutally insult the sacred icons of Orthodox Christian believers”.

According to the local press, the deputy had sent a letter to the management of the museum requesting the withdrawal of certain documents from the exhibition. He also questioned the Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, about the issue, accusing her of “Anti-Christian dogmatism”. The Minister of Culture replied that her ministry “Protected the country’s cultural and artistic heritage as a whole” and that he “Never engaged in acts of censorship”.

The deputy would have specifically targeted works by Christiforos KatsadiDi, Greek painter living in France. He reacted, explaining that an artist “Has the right to express his personal point of view, to react and to ask the questions he wishes, as for example on the war carried out on the pretext of purity and justice under a given god”commented the painter to the daily Kathimerini .

These works of contemporary artists are part of a temporary exhibition which is held until the end of September, The charm of the strange At the National Gallery, Museum of the Center of the Greek capital which houses masterpieces of modern Greek art and a collection of pictorial works from various Western European countries.

The Niki party is a small far -right formation, close to ultra orthodox religious circles and which opposed last year to the adoption in Greece of marriage for all and to the right to adoption for same -sex couples. It has 10 deputies out of 300.