The Ministry of Culture and Sports issued a condolence notice for the loss of the sculptor Sofia Vari.

The famous visual artist and wife of Colombian sculptor Fernando Boteropassed away at the age of 83, in Monte Carlo.

Her works are housed in the permanent collections of important museums such as the Vassilis and Eliza Goulandris Art Museum (Athens), the Palazzo Vecchio (Florence), the Pera Museum (Istanbul), etc. and are exhibited in several public places (Athens etc.)

Informing about the loss of Sofia Vari, the Minister of Culture and Sports Lina Mendoni made the following statement:

“Imagination an artist with an international careerwith a presence in major museums and public space installations around the world, Sofia Vari brought to the carved marble of her works the memories of the Mediterranean and the light of the Aegean.

To many people she was mainly known as wife of Fernando Botero, but Sofia Vari had her own, independent and distinct identity as an artist. The two sculptors, as a pair of visual artists, complemented each other, each maintaining their own personal language.

Starting with figurative painting, when she created her workshop in Montparnasse, Paris, where she met Botero, Sofia Vari found her real inclination in sculpture and she mainly dealt with it, until the end. Having lived abroad and in different countries for most of her life, Sofia Vari was a woman distinguished by cosmopolitanism. But Greece was always in her soul, as she chose to hold the major retrospective exhibitions in Greece, in 2004 at the Benaki Museum and in 2014 in Andros, at the Vassilis and Elizas Goulandris Foundation.

Her visual imprint will remain in Athens, with a public space project, the “Theseus“, in Kotzia square. My sincere condolences to her family and friends.”

The Deputy Minister of Culture and Sports Nikolas Giatromanolakis made the following statement:

“Sofia Vari was an important sculptor with a strong and significant presence in Greece and abroad. Many of her works, of monumental proportions, dominate the public space and yet exude the austerity and harmony of Cycladic sculptures and the forms of pre-Columbian cultures. With a rich activity and numerous exhibitions she was fortunate to see her works exhibited and installed all over the world.

In addition to sculpture, Sofia Vari was also involved in other visual arts, while a large-scale textile she welcomes visitors to the arrivals hall at Athens International Airport. I had the pleasure of working with her in the context of her exhibition at the SNFCC, getting to know her way of thinking and the way she wanted her works to talk to the public space and the public. We say goodbye to a great artist who brought contemporary Greek creation closer to the international audience.”