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Visitors will see the works in order, from the most to the least certain attributions

  Eighty works from Museums in Greece, such as the head of the Artemis of Brauron, and abroad will be on display in the exhibition dedicated to the great sculptor Praxiteles at the capital’s National Archaeological Museum from July 25 through October 31.

A recent exhibition dedicated to the great sculptor Praxiteles at the Louvre Museum in Paris offered a useful insight to organizers of a Greek exhibition about what to do and what pitfalls to avoid. It may help the upcoming tribute to Praxiteles at the National Archaeological Museum of Greece, July 25 to October 31, to prevent any overcrowding, repetition and exaggeration.

The Athens exhibition will have some advantages, one being the famous Marathon Boy, the bronze masterwork that was not the centerpiece to the Louvre exhibition, and which gave rise to a major misunderstanding on both sides. The extremely fragile statue will be moved, with its base, to the temporary exhibition hall, where it will be the central exhibit, together with a surprise that the Museum’s Director, Nikos Kaltsas, has planned.

Another impressive exhibit is the small marble Eros of Thespies that was “discovered” a couple of years ago among the many treasures that fill the Museum’s storerooms. Another masterpiece in the exhibition is the ivory figurine of Apollo that the First Ephorate of Prehistoric and Classical Antiquities lent with some reluctance as the figurine is exceedingly fragile, having been reconstructed from 240 tiny fragments.

There will be 80 exhibits on display, 27 of them from Museums abroad, as many again from Greek Museums such as the Iraklion Archaeological Museum, the Numismatic Museum and the Brauron Museum, and a further 26 from the National Archaeological Museum’s own collection.

One innovation is that all the works on display will be either from the time of Praxiteles or Roman copies, but no later. Some experts objected to the Louvre exhibition’s inclusion of later works in order to show the influence of Praxiteles, not only on the Hellenistic and Roman periods, but also on the Renaissance and more recent times. The organizers did not want to use any casts in the exhibition, apart from that of Hermes from Olympia.

In Athens, the works will be presented in order from the most certain to the least certain attributions. The workshop of Praxiteles, who was born around 395 BC, operated for around a century. It began with his father, Cephisodotus the Elder, the best-known Athenian bronze-caster of the period 390-370 BC, from whom Praxiteles learnt his trade, and was continued by his sons, Cephisodotus and Timodotus.

Among the highlights of the exhibition will be the works that travelled from Athens to Paris for the Louvre tribute, as well as two inscribed plinths which bear the signature of Praxiteles from the Ancient Agora Museum, the head of Artemis of Brauron from the old Acropolis Museum, the torso of an Arles-type Aphrodite, a grave stele with a relief and the Mantineia Base.

One in two women that call a sex help line for advice complain of reduced sexual appetite, while some 50 percent of men report having erection problems, according to data released yesterday.

Thanos Askitis, president of the Hellenic Association of Mental and Sexual Health, said that women who called their help line in the last year were not only inquiring about their own problems but also those of their partners. More than four in 10 callers are University graduates, with the majority employed in the private sector.

“Perhaps this group of professionals experiences the most stress, while graduates are more demanding and stricter in sex,” said Askitis.

Men between the ages of 30-39 were the most common among male callers, while women between the ages of 40-49 reported the most complaints.

Twelve people have been arrested on suspicion of running a business that earned 6 million euros over two years by encouraging people to send text messages or call a hotline to arrange dates with women, police in Athens said yesterday.

People were invited to call a phone number to fix a date with the women but were in fact calling a premium-rate number and were kept waiting without ever speaking to anyone. Callers this year alone spent more than 53,600 hours trying to get through to the service.

Those sending text messages were charged between 1.40 and 3.75 euros per SMS to flirt with the women. After the exchange of a few messages, the victims would stop receiving replies. Police said that more than 525,000 text messages had been sent since the start of the year.

The telephone numbers were advertised on a TV channel that broadcast hardcore pornography from a building in Drapetsona, near Piraeus, where the phone sex company was also based. Police are looking for the owner of the company. Five of those arrested are women.

A wide variety of Mediterranean sea life at the Cretaquarium

  Tourists stand before a tank containing a wide variety of Mediterranean sea life at the Cretaquarium, in Iraklion, Crete.

Still under development, the completed aquarium will comprise 32 tanks with around 2,500 fish and other sea creatures representing 200 species. Visitors can enjoy tours of the inside of the larger tanks by using remote-controlled underwater cameras.

Related Links > http://www.cretaquarium.gr/index.php?content_lang=2

Karamanlis photo exhibition continues to July 29

The Constantine Karamanlis Photograph Exhibition has been a great success since it was inaugurated on June 5 by Prime Minister Costas Karamanlis at the Pireos Street annex of the Benaki Museum, in conjunction with the Constantine G. Karamanlis Foundation.

The exhibition coincides with a symposium to mark the centenary of the birth of the late statesman, former Prime Minister and President of the Hellenic Republic. It is curated by Tassos Sakellaropoulos, designed by Stamatis Zannas and coordinated by Sofia Handaka and Christina Vona, but the heart of the exhibition is the Museum’s Director, Professor Angelos Delivorrias. The catalog was edited by Dimitris Arvanitakis and shows Karamanlis’s life from his schooldays in Proti, Serres, his student days when he worked to support his widowed mother, his early years as a lawyer and his entry into politics as a parliamentary deputy in 1935. Then there are photographs from his terms as a government Minister, Prime Minister and President, both press photographs and family moments.

The Hellenic Aerospace Industry - EAB yesterday signed one of the most important agreements in its history, undertaking a program toward the structural and electronic upgrade of F-16 fighter jets, known as CCIP, of the United States Air Force stationed in Europe, prompting optimism in the government about the Greek industry’s future.

“We are very proud of the course and the work of the biggest defense and aerospace company in our country,” said Economy and Finance Deputy Minister Petros Doukas, who was present at the signing of the agreement. “As you know, EAB has once again proven its worth as a company with international prospects and prestige now that this contract has been signed. I am particularly happy that a firm like EAB with such diverse and significant activities is further enriching its strategic partnerships and is claiming an even greater share from the international market without just limiting itself to the needs of the local market,” said Doukas.

Signing the contract yesterday were EAB CEO Tassos Philippakos and Colonel and Director of the Greek-US Defense Cooperation Office Stavros Boukidis in the presence of US Ambassador in Athens, Charles Ries, and other embassy officials.

Drivers in Athens spend half of the time it takes them to drive into the city center stuck in traffic jams, transport experts said yesterday as they presented a plan to introduce congestion charges in Athens.

The time lost as drivers try to negotiate the city’s congested roads costs businesses up to 4 million euros a week, Evangelos Matsoukis, a professor at Patras University, told a conference in Athens.

Matsoukis has submitted a plan to the Transport Ministry that envisages a system like the one in London to charge drivers to enter the city center during peak hours.

Transport engineers suggest that drivers should be charged about 5 euros to drive into central Athens between 6 a.m. and 8 p.m. from Monday to Thursday and from 6 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Friday. Drivers would be able to buy passes via SMS, on the Internet, at special machines and gas stations.