Gangster thriller with a touch of romance is the story the 40-year-old TV presenter Tonia Mavromati told zougla.gr, who a few days ago ended up in the limelight due to her involvement in the case of the stolen Rubens’ painting.
The story that flared up the passions and caused confusion - even in the respective Ministry of Culture – concerning the authenticity of the work Wild Boar Hunt, contains elements that could very well be part of a thriller script.
“This is how I met the Neapolitan”
According to the 40-year-old TV presenter, the story begins on the island of Rhodes in the summer of 2003. Tonia Mavromati meets an Italian, with the initials G. F. of Naples and a romance between them begins.
"I was in Rhodes with my parents in the summer of 2003. There, I met G. F., who told me that he is from Naples. We had an affair that continued shortly after I returned to Athens in September," says Tonia Mavromati.
Tonia’s relationship with the Italian continues until early September, when he told her that he should return home and gave her a picture as a present, arguing it is a good copy of a great painter’s work. The presenter, disappointed by the end of their relationship, takes the picture and hangs it on the wall in her home to "remember him."
“The visit of the antiquarian”
The authentic copy of Rubens, stolen from the museum in Belgium in 2001, was hanging on the wall in her home eight years, says the 40-year-old woman. Suddenly in 2011, Ms. Mavromati decides to bring it to the 64-year-old antiquarian H. Α. "to give his opinion". He is also indicted and keeps a shop in the Plaka district and sells all kinds of goods for home furnishing.
There, according to the presenter, begins the countdown to the adventure, which led to her capture. "Different people with special knowledge on that matter began to push us both to sell them the picture. We even began to fear. These pressures made us curious, because H. A. and I believed that the picture is simply a very good copy. Therefore, we agreed to bring it to my house on the island of Rhodes."
The contradiction
Here we should note that the stories of the characters are as if contradictory. Mavromati claims that they have been under pressure to sell the painting and even begun to fear for their lives and the antiquarian contradicts his girlfriend in his testimony. He argues that the reason to bring the painting was that there was no buyer for the famous masterpiece.
The arrest
Even today, the 40-year-old TV presenter obviously has not overcome the shock of her arrest and framed the events of September 1, when they agreed with the antiquarian to meet at the hotel where she was staying and to go to Rhodes with the picture. Of course, she denies that they tried to sell the picture to a policeman who pretended to be a customer, because, as she says, the authorities found the picture in search of her luggage.
"We have agreed with H. A. that I should set off on August 31, spend the night in a hotel in Glyfada. He had to bring me the picture in the hotel in the morning of Sept. 1, so that I could go to my house in Rhodes at noon the same day. He really brought the picture in the hotel and we went to the airport. Then, the cops stopped us and searched our luggage, and found the picture. Later, they took us to the police station, where it turned out that the picture was stolen from the Museum in Belgium in 2001."
“I did not know”
Both defendants state explicitly that they "did not have the faintest idea about the origin of the painting, the author and its price." "I did not know that the painting was stolen, because once I was online I realized that there is no such painting of Rubens. Also, I did not want to sell the painting, which I knew was a copy, because it has sentimental value for me", adds the TV presenter.
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