Maria Callas died in Paris in September 1977, and Greece — which had a complicated relationship with her during her lifetime — spent the following decades reclaiming her as a national icon. This coin was issued on the 30th anniversary of her death. Callas herself held American citizenship and was born in New York; the Greek cultural appropriation of her image, however sincere, is not without irony.
Maria Callas died in Paris in September 1977, and Greece — which had a complicated relationship with her during her lifetime — spent the following decades reclaiming her as a national icon. This coin was issued on the 30th anniversary of her death. Callas herself held American citizenship and was born in New York; the Greek cultural appropriation of her image, however sincere, is not without irony.