The Washington herald., 1912-11-03

the monk 0iconomns. who hsd purchassd
|it 0h The pakt Of Primes 4Nfkolnfi stb<Ei1
- Of the tQrmer- Prince Of Nojdovia,
tn interprster at the Turiish arssnai
aE etamboulv ehe nattse quarter OF Con.
st4Atin0ple: but-no money had chansed
hands Aeanwhte. the statue had been
placed on board q Greek brig flying the
Turkish nag. which was even then set.
ting ready to sail for etamboul.
The count at once manned one Of the
Estafettes boats and boarded the brig,
where the Greek captain promised not to
sail without the Frenchman.s knowledxe1
Count Aarcellus, accompanied by n.
Brest. then summoned the authorities Of
the island and laid the matter before
them. He argued that the statue had
been offered to Ensign d'Urville for $40.
Still. to carry out the contract, the count
was prepared to pay the exact sum
promised by the monk. namely, SEQ, and
not the $40 for which the statue had
been offered to n. d'Urville. The count
displayed the money in gold.
The authorities yielded to this argu-
ment. and without loss of time Count
Marceiius paid Jorsos q fourth more than
the sum offered by the monk, or 8. 800.
He received a bill OF sale and returned
to the Greek brig, secured the statue,
and had II put on board the Estafette. e
1t Is probable that the passage Of arms
mentioned in the Aicard manuscripts did
not take place at this juncture. but nj
the time the statue was being conveyed
on board the Greek brig. when its trans
portation was very likely disputed by
Ensign d'urville and his comrades
Count Marcellus, who saw the statue
only after it had been placed ON board
the French war vessel, when It was in a
still more dilapidated condition than
when found left a record, in which he
stated his belief that .'the broken arm
with the apple" which accompanied the
statue did not belong to It. and that ut
can be demonstrated that the statue rep
resented the Panagia, or Holy Virgin, of
the little Greek chapel whose ruins I saw
at Melos." ~ I
At Alexandria the antiquities on board
the Estafette were transferred to the
frigate Lonne, which, with the French
Ambassador. proceeded to France. On
his journey from Constantinople to Alex
andria the Ambassador had stopped of
at Melos and recompensed the authori-
ties. who had In the meantime been se-
verely dealt with through the influence
of Prince Nikolaki for permitting the
statue to fall into Catholic hands The
authorities had been scourged and mulct-
ed to the tune of s., 400 for their offense.
What the French Ambassador paid to
heal their wounds is not known.
The statue reached Paris in the middle
of February. 1871. and was taken to the
workshops of the Royal Museum. The
sculptor Bernard Lange. Of Toulouse.
was engaged to repair it. He removed
the remains of the right arm as far as
the joint and made alterations In the
bust. at the back of the head. and on
the draperies. On the head he made an
incision and inserted another piece of
marble. He finally left the statue as 1t
is seen to-day in the Louvre.
On the face Of a pedestal which accom-
panied the statue. and may or may not
have belonged to it. was found this in
scription in Greek capital letters:
ANDROS, SON OF MENIDES,
OF ANTIOCH.
ON THE MEANDER. EXECUTED
THIS WORK.
The fragment of the first word has
been interpreted to mean "Agesandros."
the name of the sculptor of Rhodes. who.
with Polydorus and Athenodorus. carved
the famous LAGOON" group now in the
Vatican at Rome.
Such. in brief. is the story Of the IA
nous Venus from her discovery In 1870
to her present abode I'm the Louvre-a
story to which NJ. Aicard's manuscripts
are believed to be an important and alb
solutely completing supplement.