50 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 50 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Which goddess is the Venus de Milo believed to depict?
Aphrodite
Venus is her Roman counterpart; alternative suggestions include a sea goddess, a Muse, Nemesis or Sappho.
Q 02On which Greek island was the statue discovered in 1820?
Milos
The island was then part of the Ottoman Empire.
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
The same pure-white marble from Paros was used for other Louvre masterpieces.
Q 06How tall is the statue?
Just over 2 metres
That makes her larger than life size.
Q 07Besides both arms, which parts of the statue are missing?
The left foot and the earlobes
Restorations have been minimal: the nose tip, lower lip, a big toe and some drapery.
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
He was digging in the ruins near the ancient theatre when a French sailor spotted the find.
Q 10Which French naval officer witnessed the discovery and urged the farmer to keep digging?
Olivier Voutier
He was a 23-year-old ensign on the schooner Estafette and later fought in the Greek War of Independence.
Q 11What was the name of the farmer who found the statue?
Yorgos Ketrotas
He was keen to sell, and within ten days the French vice-consul had come to look.
Q 12Which explorer reported the find to the French ambassador in Constantinople?
Jules Dumont d'Urville
He later explored Antarctica; his ship Chevrette had no room aboard for the statue.
Q 13Who was the French ambassador who agreed to buy the statue?
The Marquis de Rivière
His assistant, the Comte de Marcellus, was sent to Milos to make the purchase.
Q 21Which German scholar first argued in 1893 that the statue was later than scholars thought?
Adolf Furtwängler
His dating of roughly 150-50 BC is still widely accepted; his son Wilhelm became a famous conductor.
Q 22When did 19th-century scholars generally think the statue had been made?
The 300s BC
Three French scholars had disagreed within a month of its arrival at the Louvre.
Q 23Which sea goddess did Salomon Reinach propose the statue represents?
Amphitrite
He thought she was grouped with a Poseidon found on Melos in 1878.
Q 14What had happened by the time Marcellus reached Milos?
It had been sold and loaded onto a ship
A priest had bought it as a gift for the Sultan's interpreter; the French got the sale annulled.
Q 15Which French king had the Venus installed in his national museum?
Louis XVIII
On Quatremère de Quincy's advice she was shown as found rather than restored.
Q 16Why did Quatremère de Quincy argue against restoring the statue?
A whole Mars figure was missing from the group
Restoring antiquities was standard practice at the time; the Venus was an exception.
Q 17Which honour did Dumont d'Urville receive for his role in acquiring the statue?
Chevalier of the Légion d'honneur
He was also promoted to lieutenant and drew the notice 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 19Why must the inscription date from after 280 BC?
Antioch on the Maeander was founded then
Its letter forms suggest 150 to 50 BC.
Q 20What other talent do inscriptions at Thespiae credit the statue's presumed sculptor with?
Winning contests for composing and singing
He seems to have been a wandering artist working on commission.
Q 24What is the 'most plausible' reconstruction of the arms, per Rachel Kousser?
One hand on her drapery, one holding an apple
Wilhelm Fröhner suggested it in 1876 and Furtwängler expanded on it.
Q 25What filled the hole below one of the statue's breasts?
A metal tenon supporting the arm
It is one clue to how the lost limb was positioned.
Q 26Which side of the statue is less finely finished, suggesting it was viewed from the front?
The back
The drapery is also more elaborately carved on one side than the other.
Q 27On which leg does the Venus de Milo rest her weight?
Right
The other leg is raised and her head turned to the left, a classic counterpoise.
Q 28Which art historian called her 'the last great work of antique Greece'?
Kenneth Clark
He described her as 'a baroque composition with classic effect'.
Q 29Which statue did the Milos find displace as the popular symbol of beauty, per Clark?
The Medici one in Florence
Within a few years of 1820 she had taken its 'central, impregnable position'.
Q 30Where was the statue sent for safety during the First World War?
Toulouse
It sat in the Church of the Jacobins; in the Second World War it went to a Loire château.