Today in History—April 8: The Accidental Excavation of the Venus de Milo

The Venus de Milo, an ancient Greek marble statue of a woman with missing arms, stands on a pedestal in a grand hall with arched architecture. Orange lines highlight the statue's curves. — April 8, 1870: A farmer excavating stone blocks from a long-crumbled wall found a statue in a hollow

On this day in 1820, the Venus de Milo was found on a Greek island in the Aegean Sea.

Well, most of it. We never did find her arms.

The statue was found on the island of Mílos (hence its name) by a farmer looking for building materials he could reuse. He was excavating stone blocks from a long-crumbled wall, and there the statue lay, in a hollow, in pieces. A base with an inscription was found with it, helpfully indicating that the work was carved by Alexandros of Antioch, about 100 BCE.

When the statue was found, Greece was under Ottoman rule, and a marble bust didn’t inspire much interest from the people in charge. But two members of the French Navy happened to be docked at the island, and they were shown the find. They both wanted to take the treasure back to France. (This was peak looting-your-country-to-stock-my-museum era.)

But neither ship had room for a 2-meter statue, and the men didn’t have the authority or funds to negotiate. Instead, they returned to Constantinople and told the French ambassador there about the prize. He dispatched a ship to retrieve it, paying the officials on the island and the farmer.

By the following year the statue reached France. She was presented to King Louis XVIII in tribute, and soon she was reconstructed. She went on display at the Louvre that same year.

Fun Fact

Relatives of the farmer who found the Venus claim that at least one hand (holding an apple) was amongst the pieces.

As for that base and inscription? It was “accidentally” lost, because the “best” and most fashionable art at that time was Classical—aka a century older than our lady here—so the Louvre sidestepped the issue by not displaying the credit (and therefore not dating the statue so precisely). Patrons didn’t need to know this statue was gasp Hellenistic instead. But somehow this ended with the base and its pesky inscription going missing, and they’ve never been found.

The figure is probably a representation of Aphrodite (Venus being her Roman equivalent). Some others believe it’s supposed to be the sea goddess Amphitrite, backed up by its seaside origins. It’s a pity Alexandros didn’t include that detail.

But then again, some details have a way of disappearing.