HISTORY’S MYSTERIES.

Gisborne Times, Volume LVI, Issue 6322, 27 February 1922, Page 3

HISTORY’S MYSTERIES.

the VENUS Dl MILO. (Pearson’s Weekly.) That the Venus di Milo, undoubtedly the most beautiful statue in the world, ones had arms is apparent from the most casual glance, out in what position they were sculptured, and what became of them, are mysteries which rank first among the secrets of the art world.

Seme experts, basing their statements upon accurate measurements of the stumps of the missing arms and the manner in which the muscles appear along the back of the statue, claim that tlie right aim was gracefully posed and attached to the draperies around the waist, while the left arm was raised at the shoulder and bent at the elbow —suppositions which are supported by the meagre reports concerning tlie statue, when it; was first discovered on the Island of Melos in the Mediterranean.

But the first of the mysteries concerning tlie Venus is lonneeted with tlie origin of the statue. Who was the sculptor? It is doubtful it this will ever he revealed, for, while i: had evidently been buried for some 200 U years, it bears traces of the characteristic handiwork of any one of several famous Greek sculptors.

The modern history of - the Venus goes back about a century, when Yorgos Bottonin, a peasant living on the Island of Melos, was working m a field on the side of a mountain. Bottonin was quarrying some stone, and.accidentally came across a species of vault. Excavating further, lie was amazed to discover tlie figure of a woman, larger than nature, and radiant with the beauty of tlie immortals.

Who had scaled her there? 'Why, for some twenty centuries, had that marvellous form been a captive of the dark, standing motionless and unhoncred? Had the statue b.-eu stolen and secreted, or had it been hidden in order to save it from the hands of vandals? These questions, like the others which concern the Venus cf Melos, must also remain unanswered. When old Yorgos found the statue —or so the story goes—it was complete and unharmed. What was more, it was made of two super-imposed blocks-, joined at the waist, while the left arm could he detached from the shoulder to which it was cunningly fixed liv means of an iron tcr.cn.

Shortly after the discovery, however, a certain French vessel stepped at the Island of Melos and a young ensign started on a tour of discovery for something out of tlie ordinary. He heard of the Venus and at on ,-e sought out Yorgos. A bargain w .is struck, and the statue was to pass into the hands of the ,ensign as soon as he could produce the* purchase price agreed upon—a sum absurdly small when the real value of the statue is considered. The French vessel then sailed for Constantinople where the French Ambassador was informed of the treasure and, in a few days, the secretary of the Embassy was sent to Moles t.i complete the transaction.

When he arrived, he found that the primates of the island had arranged to present the statue to a certain Greek prince, whom they desired to please. A French warship had heen dispatched to Melos to bring the statue away with it, ’but, when she anchored in the harbor on May 23, 1529, a Greek ship, living the Turkish ling, was already at the dock and a party of Greek and Turkish sailers were preparing to load the statue on the Greek boat. Both French and Turkish sailers were landed, and a fight ensued for possession of the treasure, the French being victorious. When the melee was over and the French vessel sailed for Piraeus, it is said that the Venus bore irreparable wounds. , But this is part of the mystery which surrounds the statue, for, as the story of the affair did not come to light* until nearly half a century later,' the details could never he substantiated, and there is more than a suspicion that the statue was broken during its trip on the warship, and that the story of the fight was concocted in order to explain the mis-

hap. In fact, the only undisputed prints about this famous statue are that it was discovered on the Island of Melos and that it now stands, broken but magnificent, in the place of honor In the" Louvre at Paris. All the rest is conjecture, miner and mystery