Greek wrestler Antonio Pierri is in England and challenges Coutalianos
“What people believe prevails over the truth.”
Sophocles
Τhe “Terrible Greek” Nikolaus Macriyanni alias Antonio Pierri fighting at the Folies Bergères, I believe in 1895. The work was made by the Parisian lithographer and poster artist Georges Bataille.
G Bataille left us many works but very few are devoted to sports themes and this is one of only two that I have devoted to wrestling with that of the World Championships of the Casino de Paris 1903. I do not know of any others.
A lot of things have been written about Pierri that it is useless to come back to. I just wanted to give some information that I discovered recently and that I wanted to share:
The name Antonio Pierri has an Italian consonance, which means that he has sometimes been presented – wrongly – as Italian but it is a pseudonym, his real name being Nikolaus Macriyannis, which naturally sounds more Greek than Italian.
I have not found any trace of his birth certificate, but I have his death certificate. The transcription of the place of birth is approximate and unfortunately for me in German (Pierri died in Strasbourg during the German occupation period). But I think he was born on a small island in the Athens region, the island of Syros, even if we read here rather “Syro” or “Syra”.
I attach a copy of the handwritten information on the place of birth which may inspire our German or Greek friends!
