The funeral of Vangelis Papathanassiou in a closed circle of friends took place on June 3 in the historic Cemetery of Père Lachaise, which was described in detail by Victor Hugo in “The Miserables” and highlighted in every way in his books by Honoré de Balzac. Exactly as he wanted it, without unnecessary publicity.

And so, where only the famous can bet, next to Jim Morrison, Oscar Wilde, Edith Piaf and Balzac, will the memorial of the Greek composer be, the one who came to Earth to serve the starry Universe by sending his music in space and writing compositions for other galaxies.

This catalytic connection of his sounds with the subtleties of the mind and the Universe was emphasized by the eminent scientists and his close friends who sent him the last farewell at the most prominent cemetery in France.

His funeral had preceded his cremation and the speeches of a few prominent friends came to complement a series of small events held in his memory, low-profile but substantial, such as his own life.

(Some of Vangelis’ paintings)

What remains to be clarified is what will happen to his large fortune, which includes from royalties, real estate in Greece and Paris, cars and a boat to old objects and valuable works of art, which was the great weakness of the internationally acclaimed composer.

The only one who knows and can give a definite answer is his closest friend, the lawyer Evangelos Kalafatis, who of course attended the funeral and spoke in Greek and is the man who knows everything in relation to his wishes.

Much has been said about the assets of Vangelis Papathanassiou, the real estate in Paris or Vouliagmeni, the boat and cars he loved so much, or the cash he has in different banks. Recently, in fact, it was written in the press that his fortune reaches the amount of 245.000.000 Euros.

In fact, Papathanassiou preferred his money – as he was unconventional – instead of keeping it in banks, to enjoy investing it in the good life and specifically in real estate, keeping houses in Vouliagmeni, Meleagrou and in the most imposing location of Paris, the Trocadero, or in cars, since speed was his great weakness.

His greatest love, however, where he invested the most, was the works of art, which he bought not so much on the basis of their value in money, but his personal preferences. As for his fortune in cash, it was shaped by collaborations on well-known movie soundtracks. Contrary to the huge sums he used to ask for from famous directors – only for Oliver Stone’s “Alexander” he is said to have received 20.000.000 Euros! – he never received money from his country, Greece: from the spots he made for free for the national television ERT up to his composition for “El Greco” directed by Giannis Smaragdis. 

It remains almost unknown, at least in Greece, an unknown side of him, that of the successful visual artist and painter. A big exhibition had taken place with his most important works of art at the Spanish Biennale in Valencia entitled “Vangelis Pintura” with great success, in the presence of the official authorities of Spain. Such was the success of the exhibition that many galleries and museums requested and acquired many of his works, while in the same year he published a book that includes many of his works entitled “Vangelis”.

For Vangelis, Greece was the center of the Universe that had no boundaries but only strict coordinates like those he read in the Prosocratics and Plato and about which he could talk for hours to anyone who could embrace his vision.

Hence the Foundation he founded with the aim of promoting music, arts and sciences at the same time has the characteristic name “Research Foundation” in order to serve this objective. Vangelis had devoted himself almost exclusively to it in the last years of his life and anointed as managers the people closest to him, in whom he had blind and absolute trust, namely his lawyer Vangelis Kalafatis and his partner Lora Metaxa. Giving them, as he would say, the exact coordinates, he made sure that his money was used for a good cause for young people who are inspired by the sciences and arts, which he saw in perfect fit. More details, however, are expected to come to light when his will is opened and his lawyer reveals exactly what the famous composer’s wishes were.

He was a simple man. When, in fact, at some point he was asked by his home city of Volos where he was born and raised, how he wanted to be honored for the great fame he had given to this hitherto unknown part of Greece, he had asked only for an olive branch, for which he cried and was moved every time he spoke about it.

He preferred not to speak a lot in public and to confide his thoughts only to his few friends, such as the director Roman Polanski, with whom he had a deep and long friendship and his wife Emmanuel Senier, but also Vassilis Alexakis who passed away last year.

After all, Polanski himself honored him by giving a speech at his funeral, which he attended side by side with theoretical physicist and NASA executive Scott Bolton, a coexistence that only Vangelis Papathanassiou could have inspired – even unwittingly. Also present was his close friend, surgeon Christos Tegos, who spoke about Papathanassios’s great love for neuroscience as it is known that his compositions were inspired by similar surgeries! The doctor and researcher Dimitris Skokos and Greek traditional composer and singer Louis of Anogia were also present, who accompanied this last goodbye with a song in a very moving atmosphere. Taking the floor first, or rather his mandolin, the Cretan songwriter and good friend of Vangelis undertook to say the farewell song, making everyone burst into tears. While bowing to the coffin, he made sure to leave a silver coin as a farewell sign, the well-known coin given by the ancients Greeks to the ferryman in the Acheron river that will take him to the Underworld.

After the speeches, emblematic pieces of music by the composer were heard, such as “Light and Shadow” from “1492”, “Eternal Alexander” from “Alexander”, “One Alone” and “Love Theme” from “Blade Runner” and “Prelude” from “Voices” , while a CD with unpublished compositions of his was distributed, which were first heard by his close friends who attended the ceremony. The presence of the former queen of Persia Farah Diba Pahlavi also made an impression. Possibly, if he had not passed away, Sean Connery, a man with whom Vangelis Papathanassiou shared much, would have been present, from their common love for their place of origin to secrets about the works of art, which they collected with special love and care. The fact, however, that he had fallen ill in recent years had not allowed him to enjoy the company of his good friend.

His friends will remember him as a very generous man, “not at all an elitist”, who cared about music and not his personal image. Most of all, however, he was characterized as an essential patriot, who preferred to dedicate a huge part of his work to Greece. For us Vangelis’s greatest asset is his own music that will always take our country beyond the borders, literally reaching the stars.

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