Opy Zouni

Police in Thessaloniki dismantled an art forgery racket that was working out of a gallery in the city center, just a day before it was planning to put up several bogus paintings for sale in an online auction.

Yannis Zounis had learned to identify his mother's works. He didn't only have a detailed photographic archive she had left him and his brother to consult. Whenever Opy Zouni, the famed Greek artist, finished a painting or other creation, she would show it to her family first. "Look at it," she would tell them.

Odysseas Elytis, Giorgos Seferis and scores of other writers have waxed poetic about Santorini's natural attractions, just as dozens of visual artists have been unable to resist the island's stunning landscapes.

The Exhibition "Art: The Macedonian Art Society: 65 Years of Collections" brings together 400 paintings and engravings that chart the journey of Thessaloniki's history and culture.

The Benaki Museum's Pireos Street annex launches a retrospective exhibition of works by Greek artist Opy Zouni, who died in 2008. The show, "Order in Chaos," runs from Thursday, December 22, to February 26 and explores Zouni's trajectory from her time as a student of painting, ceramics and photography in her native Cairo to her evolution into an acclaimed international artist.