The Venus de Arles could leave the Louvre to return home

The famous Venus of Arles, a marble masterpiece preserved in the Louvre, could make a return to its city of origin. That is what the mayor of Arles and a congresswoman hope.

The marble sculpture, a Roman copy of a Greek original, was found in 1651 among the remains of the city’s Roman theater and, at the behest of King Louis XIV, left the site of its discovery in 1683 to be displayed in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles until 1798. For more than two centuries, the Venus de Arles has been kept at the Musée du Louvre, next to the Venus de Milo, and has only left the Parisian museum on two occasions: in 2013, when it returned to Arles for an exhibition dedicated to Rodin, and in 2019, when it was temporarily transferred to Geneva for the exhibition Caesar and the Rhone.

Bouches-du-Rhône’s LREM deputy, Monica Michel, called on the new Culture Minister, Roselyne Bachelot, to implement the cultural policy closer to the territories already announced by Bachelot herself during her visit to Arles in July. "The return of the Venus of Arles, 369 years after its departure for Versailles, would be an example of the priority given to the territories, but also an important cultural and tourist asset for Arles," the deputy added.

For the mayor of Arles, Patrick de Carolis, bringing the famous sculpture back to his city would also be a dream: “Now we have to define the best way to make this dream a reality,” he said.

Instead, the city council is considering "a temporary storage rather than a return home," as the work is owned by the Louvre.

Pictured is Venus of Arles, detail (late 1st century B.C.; marble, 1.94 m; Louvre, Paris) Ph.Credit

The Venus de Arles could leave the Louvre to return home

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