VENUS OF MILOS

                                          

 

The Venus of Milos, also known as Aphrodite of Milos, is one of the most famous sculptures to have ever come out of ancient Greece.  It is immediately recognizable by its missing arms, one of the greatest mysteries in the history of art.

 

The figure measures 6 feet, 8 inches, larger than life-size, represents the goddess of love and beauty, Aphrodite in Greek.  Its creator is unknown but some scholars believe it might be the work of Alexandros of Antiche.

The Venus of Milos is a masterpiece and one of the most precise and beautiful statues of the Hellenistic Period.  The lack of arms deepened the aura of this fascinating figure. The statue was buried in two separate pieces and on the 8th April 1820, the fragments were discovered on the island of Milos by a peasant called Yiorgos Kendrolas.

Kendrolas could not lift even one piece of the statue from the ground. A French naval officer named Olivier Vontire who had mored his ship at Milos came to the aid of Kendrolas in excavating the statue, only to realize that the piece was a remarkable artistic discovery.  He reported the find to his colleagues and the French immediately started negotiating with the Turkish government, who then occupied Greece, for the possession of this priceless sculpture.  

No one knows what happened to the forearms of the statue, but many different theories have emerged since the discovery. The most popular theory states that the arms were broken in 1820, in a fight off the coast of Milos when the French and the Turkish competed over the possession.

Another theory claims that in 1965, the jurist Ahmed Rechiar knew about the statue's arms as he attempted to reclaim the ownership of the Venus for Turkey from the Louvre.  The jurist added  the following information in his request:

"The arms of the Venus are also buried and the place of burial is only known to three Turkish families who keep the secret from generation to generation.  But those arms will not come to light until the Venus is returned to the homeland."   

Some believe that the right hand was holding the tunic at the hip to prevent it from slipping off, while the left hand was holding the golden apple of Paris

 

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