Petrides show at center of Chicago lawsuit opens in Berlin in September

The traveling exhibition at the center of a federal lawsuit against Chicago's National Hellenic Museum is scheduled to open at the Embassy of Greece in Berlin on September 9, according to a press release from the artist's studio.

The release, distributed July 17, describes "Hellenic Heads" as six monumental portrait busts by the Greek sculptor George Petrides, each modeled on a member of his family and standing for an era of Greek history, from classical antiquity to the present.

Berlin is the ninth stop of a tour the artist's exhibition website says will end in London, its tenth and final venue. The release says the exhibition has drawn more than 100,000 visitors.

Petrides sued the National Hellenic Museum in March, alleging violations of the Visual Artists Rights Act, as well as negligence, unjust enrichment, conversion and breach of the parties' exhibition agreement.

Urgent Matter previously reported that the suit concerns five works shown in the museum's Calamos Great Hall during a run that closed in March 2024.

In its answer, filed May 26, the museum denied damaging the sculptures and said they have remained at its Chicago facility since the exhibition closed because Petrides declined to retrieve them despite "eight separate requests" from the museum, its insurer and its attorneys between April 11, 2024, and May 12, 2026.

It is unclear whether the works going to Berlin are the same objects.

In April 2024, when “Hellenic Heads” was shown in Venice, The Associated Press reported that Petrides had recreated an earlier series in recycled plastic, using digital sculpting software and a 3D printer and reworking details by hand, so the works could withstand the weather.

The Berlin release says the works are made from recycled materials, including PETG sourced from medical packaging, are produced on specially designed printers and are finished by hand.

The exhibition website describes the same process but adds a final step the release does not mention: after reworking the printed piece by hand, Petrides writes, he either casts it in bronze at a foundry in Greece or coats it in a shell of ground bronze, brass or other metal in a catalyzed resin. The site's materials note lists the works as bronze, copper, iron, brass, gold and layered patinas.

The Berlin news release notes that the show there was preceded by a presentation in Venice. A document on the artist’s website noting previous stops for the show appears to have been deleted.

Petrides writes on his website that the Thalia in the exhibition stood outdoors for almost a year in Venice and again in Istanbul.

The Chicago case is currently in the discovery phase before Judge Andrea R. Wood, with Magistrate Judge Albert Berry III supervising. The docket shows no filings since the June 26 status hearing.

"The museum refutes the allegations but has been, for some time, attempting to manage an ongoing matter with Mr. Petrides through its insurers," a representative for the museum previously told Urgent Matter. "As this matter is now before the court, the museum will not make any further comment."

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