Five suspects in racist attack on art show identified

Authorities in Thessaloniki, northern Greece, said on Tuesday that they have identified five individuals from among a larger group that barged into an art gallery and demanded, with the use of threats, that the exhibition it was showing be taken down.

The assault on the gallery is being treated as a racially motivated crime, as the suspects took issue with the fact that the municipal gallery in the Thessaloniki suburb of Kalamaria was showing work by renowned North Macedonian artist Sergej Andreevski.

The now-defunct neo-Nazi Golden Dawn party later claimed responsibility for the incident, while flyers tossed around the gallery by the hooded individuals who caused the ruckus also bore the organization’s logo.

Authorities said they have identified five individuals among the group; four are Greek men aged 19 to 24 years old and the fifth is a woman and a foreign national, aged 22, the Hellenic Police said in an announcement. 

Another eight people who are believed to have been involved in the incident are being sought, it added.