The Superior times. [volume] (Superior, Wis.) 1870-1912, 1871-10-07
VENUS OF MILO.
How the Famed Statue Was Saved
From Prussia and From the COM

From Prussia and From the Com
mune.
M. Theophile Gautler relates in the
Journal Officiel how the Venus of Milo
was saved from the Prussians and the
Communists. At the beginning of the
war he says, when the first defeats
showed that PARIS was III darger of be
ing besieg ed, the most valuable CT the
! pictures IN the Louvre were taken out
of their frames and sent to Brest but
it was not easy to find place for the
statues, whose weight and frsgiJity
made it impossible to pack them for so
long a journey. Among these statues
by far the most valuable was the Venus
of Milo, and "the thought that this
adorable work of art might become
Prussian filed our connoisseurs with
dismay." At last, after giving much
thought to the subject, the guardians
Of the Louvre hit on an ingenious
means OF getting out of the difficulty.
The statue was taken down from its pc
destal and laid in an oak coffin filled
with wadding. In the dead of night
some men who could be depended up
on brought the coffin with its precious
contents to a secret door in the Louvre,
where it was taken up by some others
and carried to a spot known only to
themselves, where a crypt had been
prepared for the goddess in the celia S
of the Prefecture de Police.
" What grand poem" observed NJ.
Gautier, "would Heine, the singer of
the banlshed gods, nave written on the
nocturnal burial of this most famous
of the immortals, and what ironical
apostrophes he would have directed
against those hordes of the followers
of Kant and Hegel, at whose approach
a dweller IN Olympus fed to the Rue
Jerusalem The hiding place was al
the end of one of the numerous secret
passages of the Prefecture. A wall was
built in front of the spot where Venus
was laid, and covered over with rub
bish SO as to give it the appearance OF
antiquity. To make assurance doubly
sure, a heap of documents of some i'm.
portance, was laid in front of this wall,
and a second wall was then run up, sc
as to make it appear that the hiding
place was made for the documents.
Here the Venus remained during the
whole period of the siege, her admirers
wondering all the time what had be
come Of her. Perhaps, says NJ. Gau
tier, she found her seclusiOns rather
tedious but time is Of no consequence
to an immortal, and she must have
been accustomed to darkness by hel
confinement of several centuries in the
vault from which the Greek peasant
Gorgos extricated her. After the first
siege it was proposed to replace her OF
| 4 i l. n
was declared, the guardians wisely de
termined to leave her where she was
until order was restored The secrC-
was well kept, and the Venus was moi
disturbed during the second siege any
more than during the first. At length
came the defeat OF the Commune. anC
the burning of the pricipal officia
buildings, including the Prefecture
The anxiety caused to the guardians by
this event may easily be imagined
Was the Venus to perish after all, now
she had escaped the bombs of the
Prussians and the vandalism of the
Commune
Directly the army of Versailles re
sumed possession of the capital, the
guardians FASTENED to the Prefecture
The still smoking ruins were carefully
removed, and among them was founC
the oak coffin uniniured A water
pipe had miraculously saved the statue
we might now apply to her the PROUD
motto of the house at Heidelberg
'Prastat invieta Venus,'n The coffir
was brought back to the Louvre, anG
opened before a commission appointed
for the purpose. Every one leaned
forward tolook. Lying in her soft bee
III position that quite altered her usu
al appearance, her mouth half open as
if to breathe the free air, she seemed tc
look gratefully on her preservers will
that irresistible charming smile which
is unknown to modern lips. All hel
features and limbs were complete; nC
injury had been done to the marble by
the damp of the crypt in which it hat
so long been buried"