Venus de Milo - Definition and Overview

The Venus de Milo is a famous Greek statue. It is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of sexual love and physical beauty. Venus is her Roman name. It is a marble sculpture, 203 cm high. The sculpture dates back to about 130 BC, and is thought to be the work of Alexandros of Antioch.

In 1820 the sculpture was found on the Aegean island of Melos by a peasant named Yorgos. He hid it from the authorities but was later discovered by Turkish officials, who seized the sculpture. A French naval officer, Jules Dumont d'Urville, recognized its significance and arranged for a purchase by the French ambassador to Turkey The Marquis de Riviere. After some repairing, the statue was presented to King Louis XVIII, who eventually presented it to the Louvre museum in Paris, where it is now.

Various replicas exist around the world and some can be purchased via the Internet.

This statue is not to be confused with the group of statuettes known as Venus figurines.

The band Television dedicated the song Venus on the album Marquee Moon to the statue.

External links

• Musée du Louvre – Louvre Museum : Venus de Milo (http://www.insecula.com/oeuvre/O0010905.html/)
• Controversy and politics over the sculptor's identity (http://www.smithsonianmag.si.edu/smithsonian/issues03/oct03/presence.html)