The harsh economic realities of interwar and early postwar Greece often forced sculptors to find work through the Archaeological Service. Among those artists were Andreas Panagiotakis (1883–1957), Dimitrios (Mitsos) N. Perakis (1893–1965), Georgios Kastriotis (1899–1969), Konstantinos Moulos (1907–1985), Nikos Perantinos (1910–1991), Kostas Perakis (1928–2004), Stelios Triantis (1931–1999), and Lefteris Valakas (1944–1982).
Kostas Perakis, a third-generation sculptor from Ysternia on the island of Tinos, was born in 1928 in the Tzitzifies district of what is now Kallithea. Son of Dimitrios N. Perakis and grandson of Nikolaos M. Perakis (1857–1912), Kostas grew up surrounded by marble and artistry in the family’s marble workshop, founded in 1880 on Amalias Avenue 46, near Hadrian’s Arch. This workshop was a gathering place for artists and intellectuals, where many craftsmen from Tinos and beyond earned their daily wage. Later, Perakis studied sculpture at the Athens School of Fine Arts under Michalis Tombros.
In 1965, Perakis traveled to Istiaia in northern Euboea with a team of technicians. Their mission was to relocate a massive marble sculpture—a bull—discovered near the seaside of Oreoi during road construction. The bull measured 1.30 meters high, 0.75 meters wide, and 3.28 meters long, weighing over six tons. It was to be moved to a square near the town’s main church.
The Bull of Oreoi, a work dating to 290–280 BC, with its pedestal.
This striking, naturalistic sculpture—crafted in the 3rd century BCE by a highly skilled artist using Thasian marble—may have served as a grave marker for a prominent individual, much like the famous bull of Kerameikos. Alternatively, it could have been a religious offering, perhaps dedicated by Demetrius the Besieger (337–283 BCE), one of Alexander the Great’s successors, as a show of political and military strength in an effort to reestablish the League of Euboean Cities.
Despite the primitive transportation means available at the time, the project was carried out with determination. The sculpture had to be installed on a new pedestal. Given the unstable, sandy soil of the area, Perakis proposed a reinforced concrete base, which would then be clad in marble. He submitted three technical solutions to the Ministry of the Presidency, which then oversaw the Archaeological Service.
The ministry selected his third option: a square trench with a concrete foundation designed to stabilize the sculpture by counteracting the sand’s shifting nature. Once the base was complete, the challenge remained—how to position the bull. Its sheer weight made it impossible to move multiple times for test placements.
To solve this, Perakis crafted a full-scale model of the bull using compressed paper, allowing him to conduct all the necessary placement trials in 1966. At one point, officials requested that the statue be positioned with bent legs. Perakis refused—he was ready to leave. His opportunity came in early 1967, when the Director-General of Antiquities, Ioannis D. Kontis (1910–1975), and Inspector Dimitrios Lazaridis (1917–1985) visited Oreoi. Perakis requested to return to Athens, citing separation from his family as a reason.
The bull has been sheltered since 1993 under a wooden, tile-roofed structure.
Since 1993, the ancient bull of Oreoi has been protected under a wooden, tiled shelter—standing as a testament not only to Hellenistic craftsmanship but also to the ingenuity and persistence of a modern Greek sculptor who preserved it for generations to come.
