Generic selectors
Exact matches only
Search in title
Search in content
Post Type Selectors
Search in posts
Search in pages

Truman’s statue

The statue of president Truman is bronze, 3.20m high and rests on a marble pedestal.

  1. Modern and Contemporary era (1821 - )


    1963 Placed.

  2. Ottoman era (1453- 1821)


  3. Byzantine era (331 AC- 1453)


  4. Roman era (30 BC- 330 AC)


  5. Hellenistic era (322- 31 BC)


  6. Classical era (478-323 BC)


  7. Archaic era (800-479 BC)


  8. Geometric era (-1100- 800 BC)


  9. Prehistory (-1100 BC)


What I can see

US President Truman is shown standing with his legs slightly open. The hands are in an awkward posture with the right protruding somewhat, holding a document. The statue is bronze, 3.20m high and rests on a marble pedestal, in front of which the embossed emblem of the Greek-American donors is located. Around the statue are eight columns, 1.85m high, bearing texts of gratitude (both in Greek and English) of the Greek people for Truman and his speech for sending military and economic aid to Greece.

What I can't see

The post-civil war governments decided on the placement of the statue as a token of gratitude for the military and economic contribution of Truman to the right-wing’s victory. The work of Felix Welton was illegally placed without the knowledge of the municipal authorities and was inaugurated on the day of the funeral of the murdered left pacifist MP and activist Gregorios Lambrakis. Truman, apart from the nuclear bombs in Japan, was one of the key figures of American involvement in the Greek civil war after Britain. The famous “Truman Doctrine” to Greece and Turkiye was also the beginning of the Cold War, extending it later to the rest of Europe, in order to curb the influence of the USSR. For these reasons, the sculpture has been vandalised and disfigured more than any other. Four times bombs were placed and detonated, it has been covered with paint, its legs have been sawed and once it was pulled to the ground with ropes.

Bibliography

Antonopoulou Z., (2003), Τα γλυπτά της Αθήνας, Υπαίθρια Γλυπτική 1834-2004 [The sculptures of Athens, Outdoor sculpting 1834-2004], Potamos

Potamianos Ν., (2003), Οι κυβερνήσεις του εμφυλίου, ένα νέο πολιτικό σύστημα διαμορφώνεται, [The civil war governments, a new political system emerges], inΙστορία του Νέου Ελληνισμού 1770-2000, η εμπόλεμη Ελλάδα, Αλβανικό Έπος- Κατοχή και Αντίσταση- Εμφύλιος, [The History of Modern Greece 1770-2000, Greece in war, the Albanian epic- Occupation and Resistance- the Civil War], Ellinika Grammata