Venus de Milo
The world's most famous armless woman, and no one actually knows what her hands were doing.
Coming soon on iOS — be first to walk Paris offline.
Carved in Parian marble around 160-110 BC and shown essentially as found on Milos in 1820, unrestored. The Louvre declined to restore the missing arms, so you see the real fracture, not a restorer's guess.
What to look for
- The filled hole below her right breast, a socket for the metal tenon that once anchored her missing right arm.
- Drapery crisply carved on her right, but her left was made to be hidden and the back left is rough, she was meant to be seen only from the front.
- A hand gripping an apple, found with her and displayed nearby with the other fragments since the 2010 reinstallation.
She stands free in the Louvre's Greek antiquities, so walk a full circle, most visitors only see the front she was designed for.
Venus de Milo is one of 33 sights worth the detour in Paris, all bundled offline in Voyage GO — download the Paris pack and it sits on your map with no signal, filling your travel passport the moment you walk past.
More to see in Paris
- Eiffel TowerThe 300-metre iron tower Parisian artists petitioned against before it was even finished.
- Louvre MuseumThe world's most-visited museum lives inside a 12th-century fortress that became a royal palace.
- Notre-Dame de ParisThe spire fell on live TV in April 2019; since December 2024 you can walk back inside.
- Musée d'OrsayVan Gogh and Monet hung inside a Beaux-Arts station built for the Paris–Orléans railway.
- Champs-ÉlyséesA single 1.9-km straight line runs from the Concorde obelisk to the Arc de Triomphe — Paris's ceremonial spine on the Axe historique.
- Place de la BastilleThe prison that lit a revolution is gone — and the mob that stormed it on 14 July 1789 came for gunpowder, not the seven forgotten men inside.