Winged Victory of Samothrace

General Information

The Winged Victory of Samothrace, also called the Nike of Samothrace, is a 2nd-century BC marble sculpture of the Greek goddess Nike (Victory). Since 1884, it has been prominently displayed at the Louvre and is one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world. H.W. Janson described it as "the greatest masterpiece of Hellenistic sculptures."

Description

The Nike of Samothrace, discovered in 1863, is estimated to have been created around 200–190 BCE. It is 8 feet (2.44 metres) high. It was created to not only honor the goddess, Nike, but to honor a sea battle. It conveys a sense of action and triumph as well as portraying artful flowing drapery through its features which the Greeks considered ideal beauty.

HistoryIn April 1863, the Victory was discovered by the French consul and amateur archaeologist Charles Champoiseau, on the Greek island of Samothrace in the Aegean Sea and he sent it to Paris in the same year. The statue has been reassembled in stages since its discovery. The prow was reconstructed from marble debris at the site by Champoiseau in 1879 and assembled in situ before being shipped to Paris.

Louvre Museum

Now the statue is in the Louvre Museum , France . It has 7 million visitors each year and $5.27 million as an income! Of course , there have been many attempts to come back to it’s motherland , Greece!

Works for the maintenance of the statue

In September 2013,officials at the famed Paris museum said the 2nd-century B.C. sculpture was set to be dismantled, hoisted onto rollers and wheeled into a closed cabin in another Louvre gallery for structural work and a meticulous cleaning to restore the original hues to its marble over the next nine months.

"For specialists in Greek sculpture, it's an essential work ... It immediately draws attention,"

Ludovic Laugier

Eleanna Brika

&

George Stathis B 2,3

2013-2014

SOURCES

http://en.wikipedia.org

http://bigstory.ap.org