The Venus de Milo has another missing piece. Subscribe to our channel! http://goo.gl/0bsAjO The Venus de Milo is iconic. Why? It turns out a missing piece might have something to do with it. In this episode of Vox Almanac, Vox’s Phil Edwards explores the secret history of the Venus de Milo, the famous armless statue from Greece. Found in 1820, the Venus de Milo was always considered notable, but it’s a complicated political situation that made the statue iconic. French art and the Louvre were struggling when Venus was discovered. A large cache of art — looted by Napoleon around the world — had recently been returned to various home countries, and that left a huge gap in the Louvre’s classical art collection. Venus was the perfect solution — and the French went to extreme lengths to make sure nobody questioned her legitimacy. The result was a globally famous statue with a complicated and secretive history. Make your own Venus using a 3D printed model: https://www.myminifactory.com/object/3d-print-venus-aphrodite-is-the-goddess-of-love-she-was-depicted-in-the-nude-or-in-various-stages-of-nudity-and-painted-the-figure-is-executed-in-the-hellenistic-style-and-famed-for-its-sensuous-appearance-it-supposedly-lost-its-arms-in-a-struggle-arising-b-25162 If you want to learn more about Venus, check out: Disarmed by Gregory Curtis Incredibly detailed, this book immerses you in the life and times of one of the world’s most famous statues. https://www.amazon.com/Disarmed-Story-Venus-Gregory-Curtis/dp/1400031338 The Venus de Milo: Genesis of a Modern Myth by Philippe Jockey This paper provides the best and clearest synopsis of how and why the French concealed the truth about the Venus de Milo. https://www.academia.edu/12027590/_The_Venus_de_Milo._Genesis_of_a_Modern_Myth_in_Z._Bahrani_Z._Celik_E._Eldem_dir._Scramble_for_the_past._A_story_of_archaeology_in_the_Ottoman_Empire_1753-1914_2011_ Creating the Past: The Vénus de Milo and the Hellenistic Reception of Classical Greece by Rachel Kousser This paper helpfully grounds the Venus in the Hellenistic era (and provides a good summary of her discovery and subsequent theories). https://www.ajaonline.org/article/100 Vox.com is a news website that helps you cut through the noise and understand what's really driving the events in the headlines. Check out http://www.vox.com/ Check out our full video catalog: http://goo.gl/IZONyE Or our podcasts: https://www.vox.com/podcasts Follow Vox on Twitter: http://goo.gl/XFrZ5H Or on Facebook: http://goo.gl/U2g06o