Where Is Venus de Milo? See It at Louvre, Paris

Q: Where can I see the Venus de Milo?

She's at the Louvre in Paris, where she's been since 1821. She has her own gallery on the ground floor of the Sully Wing. Along with the Mona Lisa and the Winged Victory, she's one of the Louvre's three most visited works.

Q: How old is the Venus de Milo?

She dates to approximately 130-100 BCE, during the Hellenistic period of ancient Greek art. The sculptor may have been Alexandros of Antioch, based on an inscription found with the statue. She stands 203 cm (6 feet 8 inches) tall and is carved from Parian marble.

Q: Is the Venus de Milo really Venus?

Probably. The half-draped pose is typical of Aphrodite (Venus in Roman mythology). The apple fragment found at the discovery site supports this: Aphrodite won the golden apple in the Judgment of Paris. Some scholars have suggested she could be Amphitrite, a sea goddess worshipped on Milos, but the Aphrodite identification is widely accepted.

The Venus de Milo, discovered in 1820 on the Greek island of Milos, represents either Aphrodite, goddess of love, or the sea goddess Amphitrite. Carved from Parian marble around 130–100 BCE by an unknown Ancient Greek sculptor, it combines an idealized upper body with a more naturalistic treatment of drapery pooling at the hips.

A Greek peasant found the statue in two main pieces on his land. French naval officers quickly negotiated its purchase and sent it to Paris as a gift for King Louis XVIII. The arms were already missing at discovery, sparking endless speculation about her original pose. Was she holding a mirror? An apple? The arms of a male companion?

The Louvre prominently displayed the Venus as a replacement for the Medici Venus, which Napoleon had been forced to return to Italy. She became a symbol of Classical Greek beauty, though the proportions are actually Hellenistic. The statue's fame was partly a matter of political timing: France needed a world-class classical sculpture, and the Venus arrived at exactly the right moment.

She's at the Louvre in Paris, where she's been since 1821. She has her own gallery on the ground floor of the Sully Wing. Along with the Mona Lisa and the Winged Victory, she's one of the Louvre's three most visited works.

Nobody knows exactly how the arms were lost. The statue was discovered in 1820 on the Greek island of Milos by a farmer. Some fragments of arms and a hand holding an apple were found nearby, but they may not belong to the statue. Scholars have debated her original pose for over 200 years.

She dates to approximately 130-100 BCE, during the Hellenistic period of ancient Greek art. The sculptor may have been Alexandros of Antioch, based on an inscription found with the statue. She stands 203 cm (6 feet 8 inches) tall and is carved from Parian marble.

Probably. The half-draped pose is typical of Aphrodite (Venus in Roman mythology). The apple fragment found at the discovery site supports this: Aphrodite won the golden apple in the Judgment of Paris. Some scholars have suggested she could be Amphitrite, a sea goddess worshipped on Milos, but the Aphrodite identification is widely accepted.

Venus de Milo

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The Artist

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