Art historian and set designer Liberty Polyzou and her daughter Tomasina passed away on New Year’s Day morning, just hours apart, having both battled the same hereditary disease. Leti, as she was known, was an ambassador of Greek art with a strong artistic activity and close ties to prominent visual artists such as Moralis, Mytaras, Tetsis and Angelos.

The atmosphere in the elegant aristocratic house of Kifisia, which has occasionally hosted glamorous artistic and social evenings, was festive, as it is every year. The decorated tree stood brightly lit next to the living room window, the dining room was lined with traditional melomakarona and Christmas decorations, many of them handmade, scattered in various corners, set a bright, cheerful tone. Yet it was against this beautiful backdrop that a shocking family tragedy was to unfold, in the early hours of the New Year. The home’s owner, 63-year-old art historian, set designer and visual artist Liberty Polyzou and her daughter, 44-year-old painter Thomais Kontogiorgas, never woke up on the first morning of 2025. Their lifeless bodies were found a few hours later by a relative.

All this could be a scene from an ancient tragedy or a dramatic film, but unfortunately, it is life itself that sometimes writes the most imaginative tragic scenarios. Two young, beautiful, talented, cultured women, imbued with a deep love of art, mother and daughter, who have been inseparable throughout their lives, crossed the threshold of death, simultaneously, almost simultaneously, prematurely and cinematically, shocking deeply, at first, and plunging into grief, then, their close relatives and the large circle of close and dear friends -among them many distinguished artists and intellectual people- who surrounded them with their love for years.

A month before, at the end of November, Leti Polyzou, as her family called her, had been present at the opening of the exhibition of the cartoonist Kostas Vlachos at the Tsichritzis Foundation for Visual Arts in Kifissia. She was radiant and smiling, as always, exchanged greetings with her friends in view of the holidays and discussed, as usual, artistic issues. That evening, nothing that evening foreshadowed the heavy blow of fate that was to follow.

Inherited disease

Perhaps because Leti Polyzou, apart from all her other gifts, was a brave and strong woman, who faced life with optimism and did not give up no matter how great the obstacles that appeared in her path, even though the difficulties had begun for her from her childhood. She was just 10 years old when she was diagnosed with a form of renal disease and had to undergo adrenalectomy surgery to save her life.

Years later, she would be faced with every mother’s worst nightmare: Her only daughter, her beloved Thomasina, would be diagnosed with the same disease, which is hereditary. The outcome of her course, however, will not be as positive as her mother’s. The adrenal surgery to which she undergoes will not have the expected results, kidney failure will knock on her door and the grueling, physically and psychologically exhausting, psychologically, process of dialysis will force its way into the daily routine of the last ten years of her life. Lately, Tomasina’s health had been deteriorating. Doctors had even recommended that she undergo a transplant, but mother and daughter did not decide. They believed, hoped, prayed that the condition could be treated more conservatively. Unfortunately, they were not confirmed.

Two or three days before New Year’s Day, the girl developed flu symptoms. Her mother contacted her doctors and informed them that they would have to postpone her scheduled dialysis for a while. The answer she received was that there was no problem, as long as the postponement was short. Unfortunately, however, Thomasina’s beleaguered body could not hold out. On New Year’s morning she breathed her last while sleeping in her bedroom. Shortly afterwards her mother would be confronted with the unspeakable, the tragic fait accompli, the death of her child. Her heart will not bear the pain, it will betray her. She had, after all, confided it earlier to her own people that if something happened to her daughter, there would be no more life for her. And unfortunately, this gruesome prediction was confirmed in the worst way.

Nothing could have foretold that the life of the girl born in London, to doctor parents and raised in an environment both financially comfortable and highly cultured, would turn out so tragically. From the home where he grew up, distinguished men of art and science, doctors, writers, visual artists… Enchanted by the intoxicating aroma of art, she would study art history and scenography at the University of La Verne, in California. And then she will embark on her own personal dive into the visual arts.

Life Bond

She attends important exhibitions not only in Greecebut also in various other countries around the world, including London and New York. He gradually enters art circles and associates with important artists, from whom he soaks up knowledge and experience like a sponge.
One of them, the accomplished painter Angelos will be a beacon of light not only in her career, but in her entire life. She will become his muse, his model, the ideal companion on his artistic excursions, and then a loyal lifelong friend. “Some people come into our lives as extras, while others as protagonists.

But few are the ones who direct the script of your life… One of them for me was Angelo. This friendship, love and mutual respect counts for decades,” she had confessed. But his own heartfelt last public farewell was also overflowing with deep love and sorrow: “In the countless … storms of life, man, each one of us, sends whatever … wrecks he has to the bottom of the soul, thus gaining strength to continue his passage … to his earthly natural end … Until the venerable old age…

But in the case of our beloved Lettie and her adored daughter Tomasina, Divine Power seems to have been in a hurry to call them to the Sublime Heavenly Bodies, depriving us, suddenly and unexpectedly, of their precious presence, and plunging all of us, who have tasted their long precious friendship, into a heavy mourning … Yes!!! So suddenly, on days of peak Christian worship, on Christmas days, they left us… Gone is a wonderful woman, an ambassador of the arts, a … an angel, not only in form but in soul… Unparalleled in the sensitivity of the sensitive LETH ! Emotional, moral, material! Always silent in her devotion to her fellow man.

Even more admirable, her attitude towards the … unwritten, however, by her permanently smiling beautiful face, difficulties of life … that finally sent the roiling ships of her weak heart to the bottom. Indeed, the untimely loss of her adored daughter Tomasina was for her a DEVASTATING one !!!”
There were, however, many other distinguished visual artists with whom she was closely associated during her lifetime. Among them were Dimitris Mytaras and Panagiotis Tetsis, for whose work, in fact, she made documentary films that won awards both within and outside the borders, but also Yannis Moralis, and Demosthenes Kokkinidis, and Sotiris Sorogkas, and many more with whom he “conversed” creatively, either by curating their exhibitions, or by writing texts about their work that were published in magazines, or by preparing television specials.

At the same time, he has also been involved in set design, creating sets for theatrical performances, the most recent being “Eleni Papadaki – Crime of Error” by Paulina Gionaki, directed by George Christodoulou. Her deep artistic and historical knowledge combined with her refined taste and unbridled imagination created impressive sets that had a lot to say. For decades she was a dynamic presence at all major artistic events, supported and passionately promoted the work of Greek artists, passed on her knowledge and passion to the younger generation, first and foremost her daughter, who studied at the School of Fine Arts and was active as a painter. Her role in the Vorres Museum as a member of its Board of Directors and President of its Friends Association was also decisive for many years.

For those who knew her, Leti Polyzou was an important presence in the field of arts, which she served with deep love and dedication through many different roles, but also a timelessly bright presence, with rare sensitivity, empathy and excess of kindness, who never stopped smiling, hoping, dreaming and creating even in the darkest moments of her life.

Above all, she was a devoted, loving mother who stood like a guardian angel at her daughter’s side. And when she was gone, so prematurely and unjustly, she spread her wings and flew with her into the infinity painted in the most beautiful colors of the palette.