Venus de Milo

On 8 April 1820 the famous ancient statue Venus de Milo was discovered on the Aegean island of Melos (Milos in modern Greek) . It was presented to Louis XVIII, who donated it to the Louvre the following year.

The marble statue, which is believed to depict Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love and beauty (Venus to the Romans),  was discovered by a peasant in a small underground cave.
The figure is thought to represent the acme of female beauty, combining grandeur with gracefulness, but Pierre-Auguste Renoir was not impressed and described it as a ‘big gendarme’.