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42 free Venus De Milo trivia questions with answers — trivia quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
The Venus de Milo is the most famous armless woman in the world and, thanks to a farmer, a bored French sailor and a diplomatic scramble in 1820, the crown jewel of the Louvre's antiquities. This quiz covers the statue and everything around it. The easy questions ask what goddess she probably is, where she was found, where she stands today, what she is missing and what she is made of. From there it moves into the discovery story: Olivier Voutier's dig, Dumont d'Urville's report to Constantinople, the priest who had already bought her, the ship she was pulled off, and Louis XVIII's decision, on Quatremère de Quincy's advice, to show her unrestored. The harder end is for art-history readers: the hand with the apple, the lost plinth naming Alexandros son of Menides of Antioch on the Maeander, the tenon hole under her right breast, the three scholars who disagreed within a month, Furtwängler's 1893 redating to the Hellenistic period, Reinach's Amphitrite theory, the Salle du Tibre, the Toulouse and Valençay evacuations, the 1964 trip to Japan, the seventy poems, Magritte's pink body, Dalí's drawers, Marlene Dietrich's poster and the Kellogg's adverts. Every answer was checked against encyclopaedia entries on the statue, its finders and its island, and the supporting sentence is stored with each question. If you enjoy this one, try our Birth of Venus, ancient Greece and Louvre quizzes next.
30 of 42 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which goddess is the Venus de Milo believed to depict?
Aphrodite
Aphrodite, the Greek goddess of love, is the usual identification; Venus is her Roman counterpart, and the bare torso with slipping garment matches her other Hellenistic statues.
Q 02Milos, where the Venus de Milo was found, lies in which sea?
Aegean Sea
The Aegean Sea surrounds Milos, a volcanic island at the south-western edge of the Cyclades, roughly halfway between Athens and Crete.
Q 03In which year did the Venus de Milo go on display at the Louvre?
1821
It arrived just as the museum was returning works Napoleon had seized across Europe.
Q 04When does the modern consensus place the statue's carving?
Between 160 and 110 BC
It is a Hellenistic work, perhaps made between 160 and 110 BC.
Q 05What kind of marble is the Venus de Milo carved from?
Parian
Parian marble, the fine-grained white stone quarried on the Cycladic island of Paros, is the material; the sculptor worked it in two main blocks joined at the hips.
Q 06How tall is the statue?
Just over 2 metres
Just over 2 metres: the statue measures about 204 cm from plinth to crown, making the goddess slightly larger than life size.
Q 07Besides both arms, which parts of the statue are missing?
The left foot and the earlobes
The left foot and the earlobes are lost, besides both arms; restorers added only the nose tip, the lower lip, one big toe and a few folds of cloth.
Q 08What object was found alongside the statue in a separate marble hand?
An apple
It led to the identification of the goddess holding the apple of discord; 2010 analysis backed the link.
Q 09On what date did a Greek farmer uncover the statue?
8 April 1820
8 April 1820 is the date usually given: the farmer was pulling stones from ruins near the ancient theatre when he struck the buried statue, and a young French sailor nearby took notice.
Q 10Which French naval officer witnessed the discovery and urged the farmer to keep digging?
Olivier Voutier
Olivier Voutier, a 23-year-old ensign from the French schooner Estafette, was hunting antiquities nearby, saw the farmer's find and encouraged him to dig out the rest; he later fought for Greek independence.
Q 11Which French vice-consul on Milos examined the statue soon after its discovery?
Louis Brest
Louis Brest, the French vice-consul on Milos, inspected the newly found statue within days and reported it to his superiors, starting the French effort to acquire it.
Q 12On which ship was Dumont d'Urville serving when he examined the newly found statue?
Chevrette
The Chevrette, a naval survey vessel charting the eastern Mediterranean, called at the island soon after the discovery; its ensign Dumont d'Urville examined the statue and carried word of it to the embassy at Constantinople.
Q 13Who was the French ambassador who agreed to buy the statue?
The Marquis de Rivière
Q 21Which German scholar first argued in 1893 that the statue was later than scholars thought?
Adolf Furtwängler
Adolf Furtwängler, in his 1893 Masterpieces of Greek Sculpture, argued from the statue's style and the plinth inscription for a Hellenistic date rather than a Classical one; his son Wilhelm became a celebrated conductor.
Q 22When did 19th-century scholars generally think the statue had been made?
The 300s BC
The 300s BC was the usual 19th-century dating: the statue was taken for a Classical work of the age of Praxiteles, until its style and the plinth inscription pointed to a later, Hellenistic date.
Q 23Which sea goddess did Salomon Reinach propose the statue represents?
Amphitrite
The Marquis de Rivière, France's ambassador to the Ottoman court, authorised the purchase and sent his secretary, the Comte de Marcellus, to collect the statue; he later presented it to the king.
Q 14What had happened by the time Marcellus reached Milos?
It had been sold and loaded onto a ship
It had been sold and loaded onto a ship: a local priest had arranged its sale to a senior Ottoman interpreter, and Marcellus had to have the deal cancelled before taking the statue aboard.
Q 15Which French king had the Venus installed in his national museum?
Louis XVIII
Louis XVIII received the statue from his ambassador to the Ottoman court and passed it to the Louvre, where, on Quatremère de Quincy's advice, it was displayed unrestored rather than given new arms.
Q 16Why did Quatremère de Quincy argue against restoring the statue?
A whole Mars figure was missing from the group
A whole Mars figure was missing from the group, Quatremère de Quincy argued: he read the Venus as half of a Venus-and-Mars pair, so any restored arms would be guesswork; restoring antiquities was otherwise routine.
Q 17Which honour did Dumont d'Urville receive for his role in acquiring the statue?
Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur
Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur was his reward: Dumont d'Urville received the cross, was promoted to lieutenant, and the scientific notes from the voyage brought him to the attention of the Academy of Sciences.
Q 18Which sculptor is named on a now-lost inscription found near the statue?
Alexandros of Antioch
The plinth read '[...]andros, son of Menides, of Antioch on the Maeander'; the link is disputed.
Q 19Antioch on the Maeander, named in the lost inscription, lay in which ancient region?
Caria
Caria, in south-western Asia Minor, held Antioch on the Maeander, a Seleucid foundation of about 280 BC and the home city of the sculptor named on the lost plinth.
Q 20What other talent do inscriptions at Thespiae credit the statue's presumed sculptor with?
Winning contests for composing and singing
Winning contests for composing and singing: a victor list from the Thespian festival in Boeotia records a man of the same name and city taking that prize, so the sculptor may also have been a musician.
Amphitrite, Poseidon's queen, was Reinach's candidate: he paired the statue with the large Poseidon statue later unearthed on the same island, suggesting the two came from one group.
Q 24According to a long-repeated legend, how did the statue lose its arms?
In a brawl on the beach between rival claimants
In a brawl on the beach between rival claimants, says the legend; in fact the arms were already missing when the statue was unearthed, so the story of a fight is a myth.
Q 25What filled the hole below one of the statue's breasts?
A metal tenon supporting the arm
A metal tenon supporting the arm once filled the hole below one breast, a fixing point for the separately carved limb and one clue to how that lost arm was positioned.
Q 26Which part of the statue is noticeably less finely finished?
The back
The back is rougher and less detailed than the front, a sign the sculptor expected the statue to stand against a wall and be seen from the front only.
Q 27On which leg does the Venus de Milo rest her weight?
Right
Right: her weight rests on the right leg, pushing that hip outward, while the left knee bends forward in a relaxed, asymmetric stance.
Q 28Which art historian called her 'the last great work of antique Greece'?
Kenneth Clark
Kenneth Clark, the British art historian behind The Nude (1956) and the BBC series Civilisation (1969), gave the Venus de Milo that title in his survey of the ideal figure.
Q 29Which earlier statue did the Venus de Milo displace as the popular symbol of beauty?
The Medici one in Florence
The Medici one in Florence, the Venus de' Medici, had been the most admired antique nude for two centuries; after its return from Paris in 1815 the new Venus took over its reputation.
Q 30Where was the statue sent for safety during the First World War?
Toulouse
Toulouse received the Louvre's most precious works when the German advance threatened Paris; the Venus de Milo was kept in the city's Church of the Jacobins until the war ended.