Song and dance breaks out over Greek costume legacy
CELEBRATED Greek folk dance teacher Mary Vassiliou was barely dead when a tussle for her priceless collection of antique costumes began.
Vassiliou, who died in May at the age of 93, dedicated her life to preserving Greek tradition through dance. On her trips to Greece over many years, she bought about 750 authentic dance costumes.
This prized collection is now at the centre of a bitter feud between trustees of Vassiliou’s will and the man she lived with for almost 50 years. According to her will, the costumes — said to be worth millions — are to vest in a trust and must be preserved in a museum for the benefit of the Greek community in South Africa.
But her partner, Akis Apergis, 75, to whom Vassiliou bequeathed R300 000 and the Toyota Corolla he drives, is launching legal action to have the will declared invalid, arguing she was not of sound mind at the time of signing it.
The executors of her estate, who are also guardians of the costume trust, Christine Artemides, John Galatis and Christos Anagnostopoulos, obtained a Johannesburg High Court order to bar Apergis from accessing the costumes.
In court papers, Artemides, a lawyer, claims that the costumes of “immense monetary value” must be kept away from Apergis for fear that he might take them for himself or sell them.
In a tense scene last week, the costumes were removed, in terms of a court order, from the home the elderly couple shared.
Apergis said he and Vassiliou met at a social gathering in Johannesburg in the ’60s. They later moved in together.
“We were idealists and wanted to develop Greek folk dancing in South Africa, to show the racists of South Africa that Greece has culture and civilisation.”
Apergis claims he was the breadwinner for many years and this helped Vassiliou to develop her dance school. He said it was with his money that she travelled to Greece to purchase the costumes and later a property.
Vassiliou bequeathed a house in Lonehill, Johannesburg, to Stonko Seloane, 19, whom the couple raised as their son.
Seloane, a student, will inherit the house at age 30 and stands to benefit from economic ventures related to the costumes.
Seloane said he did not know much about the legal battle for the costumes and had no intention of becoming involved.
Apergis said he only realised there were issues with the will when the trustees arrived at his home with a court order to take an inventory of the costumes before locking them up.
The trustees denied all claims by Apergis, and said they are simply trying to fulfil their duties as set out in Vassiliou’s will.