BEAUTIFUL "REFUGEE."

Auckland Star, Volume LXXI, Issue 220, 16 September 1940, Page 11

BEAUTIFUL "REFUGEE."

VENUS DE MILO'S FATE. One important "refugee" in France whose whereabouts is unknown is the beautiful Venus de Milo, 2000 years old, but still the most beautiful woman in the world. Months ago she was removed from the Louvre to an unknown place of safety and is probably at this moment getting her beauty sleep in a bomb-proof shelter, wrapped in asbeetos sheets. Fortunately, she is accustomed by now to the way of the refugee. Sudden journeys have 'been a part of her life ever since she was found by a peasant about 120 years ago on the Greek island of Milos. The French and the Turks had a skirmish over her, and it is said that it was on this occasion that ehe lost her arms and had her beautiful nose knocked out of joint. During the siege of Paris, in the Franco-Prussian War of 1871. she was hidden in a cellar —no need for bbmb-proofing in those day-s. During the last war she was a refugee in Toulouse. Whether under the Armistice terms she will be in French-occupied France or German-occupied France nobody knows except those who are guarding her. Maybe she isn't in France at all.