A workshop on “The Freedom of Art – Data and Challenges” was held last Tuesday (6/5) at National Gallery in the wake of the recent vandalism of works in the exhibition “The Seduction of the Bizarre“.

In fact, the legal adviser of the National Gallery, speaking to reporters, stressed that the Gallery will file a lawsuit for 500,000 euros against Nikos Papadopoulos for the vandalism of the artworks.

Speaking to Mega, the former Nikis MP said he did not regret his action: “The 500,000 that these gentlemen want from me who put the profane works that directly insult the Virgin Mary are within the framework of my financial extermination, since the character assassination preceded it. Then comes the political extermination. You saw that I was expelled from Niki and they are trying to erase my voice from the Greek Parliament. But the people don’t want it. According to a poll, 9/10 Greeks want to hear this voice from the Parliament,” Nikos Papadopoulos said.

“They cut half my salary for the profane projects I took down. And I did well to take them down, I hope that God graces me to take them down again. No compromise from me. 500,000 euros is not a very large sum, for Orthodox believing Christians. We are 10 million. Half a euro by 1,000,000 people and we made it to five hundred thousand. We are not afraid of their fines, we are not afraid of anything.”

At the same time, New Democracy MP Thanos Plevris said in a post on social media that the lawsuit against Nikos Papadopoulos is an exaggeration and that “this is not restitution but revenge.”

“His act is unacceptable, but the exhibition of offensive works about our Virgin Mary remains unacceptable. Because the Gallery is a National Gallery and not a private gallery,” Plevris concluded in his post.