Today in HistoryâApril 8: The Accidental Excavation of the Venus de Milo
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 MĂlos (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 didnât 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 didnât 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.
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 âaccidentallyâ lost, because the âbestâ and most fashionable art at that time was Classicalâaka a century older than our lady hereâso the Louvre sidestepped the issue by not displaying the credit (and therefore not dating the statue so precisely). Patrons didnât need to know this statue was gasp Hellenistic instead. But somehow this ended with the base and its pesky inscription going missing, and theyâve never been found.
The figure is probably a representation of Aphrodite (Venus being her Roman equivalent). Some others believe itâs supposed to be the sea goddess Amphitrite, backed up by its seaside origins. Itâs a pity Alexandros didnât include that detail.
But then again, some details have a way of disappearing.
- 750 francs: Amount paid to the farmer for the statue
- 4-foot by 5-foot: Hole the Venus was hidden in
- Nearly 9 million: Visitors to the Louvre each year
- 1893: The ice cream soda is declared Americaâs national drink by a leading magazine
- 1974: American baseball player Hank Aaron breaks Babe Ruthâs home-run record
- 2024: A total solar eclipse occurs in parts of North America
