Bulgaria’s most beautiful woman, Sofia Bessi is a member of the House of Bulgaria’s National Gallery of Modern Art. As a result of her work in contemporary and modern art, Sofia Bessi became a celebrity in her native country and is sought after by collectors from all over Europe and beyond. Born as Mehldalaya Todorov, Sofia Bessi was actually named after her husband’s grandfather, who was an ethnic Turkish from Thrace, on the Black Sea coast. When she was young, her father served as a Turkish gulet, and she was often looked upon as being handsome and charming despite her minority status. When she was twenty-one, Sofia Bessi met and married a Bulgarian artist, Ioann Karanta, whom she had met while studying abroad in Paris, where she studied architecture.
Following the war, Sofia Bessi established a series of institutions for handicapped people, which she ran from her home in 1950. She also took up a post as a nurse in a hospital in Salonika, where she honed her skills as a portrait photographer, before going on to become a painter, illustrator, writer, translator, and designer. Sofia Bessi’s career was always characterized by her ability to create portraits of people with a unique blend of imagination and compassion, which endeared her to many people and helped pave her way to becoming a popular and respected artist in her own right. Her artwork was widely accepted in the art world, which made Bessi one of the most well known and respected Bulgarian artists of all time.
Today, Sofia Bessi is seventy years old and is recognized as a person of distinction by the United Nations. In 2021, Sofia Bessi passed away and is survived by her four children (ages twelve, six, four, and two), her mother, and numerous grandchildren. Her death was sudden and tragic, and marked the beginning of a new chapter in the life of her family. As her children continue to work hard to support their mother and her many needs, Sofia Bessi has remained devoted to fulfilling her legal obligations of being a Bulgaria citizen, as well as fulfilling her obligations as an elderly woman with the right to vote. Regardless of her age, and the fact that neither she nor her children are in a position to petition the High Assembly to recognize her as a Bulgaria citizen, the family is striving hard to ensure that her achievements and sacrifices are never overlooked or taken for granted.