Paris · FR

Vénus de Milo

The Venus de Milo is the ancient marble goddess who has embodied ideal Greek beauty at the Louvre since 1821. Carved in the Hellenistic period and found half-buried on the Aegean island of Melos (Milo) in 1820, this armless Aphrodite stands a shade over two metres tall, made of luminous Parian marble, and is one of the three most famous female figures in the museum alongside the Mona Lisa and the Winged Victory of Samothrace. Her missing arms and serene, half-draped pose have fed centuries of speculation, while the room she stands in—the Galerie des Antiques in the Sully wing, dressed in imperial red and grey marble—makes her all the more striking. For many visitors, coming face to face with her is the emotional high point of a Louvre visit.