The Venus de Milo, in Paris at the Louvre museum, is a stunning 204 cm tall statue in Parian marble. It depicts a Greek goddess of love and beauty Aphrodite, portrayed half-clothed with a bare .
This figure of a goddess has fascinated art lovers ever since its discovery 1820, when a peasant Yorgos Kentrotas found it inside a buried niche within the ancient city ruins the island of Milos. The statue was found in two large pieces (the upper torso and the lower draped legs) along with several (pillars topped with heads), fragments of the upper left arm and left hand holding an apple, and an inscribed .
The statue presumably had two arms, two feet, both earlobes intact and a plinth; early following the statue's rediscovery show part of the left arm and the plinth, though not the missing left foot, intact, but these were subsequently lost after the statue's rediscovery. One hand most likely held the about her waist, while the other held an apple in front of her for contemplation. The apple was both a reference to the apple-shaped island of Milos, whose name from the Greek for "apple," and to the myth of Aphrodite, who was judged by Paris to be the most beautiful of three goddesses and received in reward a golden apple.

The great of the Venus de Milo during the 19th century owed much to a major propaganda effort by the French authorities. In 1815, France had returned the Venus de' Medici (also known as the Medici Venus) to the Italians, after it had been looted by Napoleon Bonaparte. The Medici Venus, regarded as one of the finest sculptures in existence, caused the French to promote the Venus de Milo as a greater treasure than that which they recently had lost. The statue was praised by many artists and as the epitome of delicate female beauty. It is also acclaimed as one the best examples of Ancient Greek .