ADVENTURES OF THE VENUS OP MILO.

Hawke's Bay Times, Volume 19, Issue 1251, 17 February 1872, Page 3

ADVENTURES OF THE VENUS OP MILO.

The thought that this adorable work of art might become Prussian, filled French connoisseurs with dismay, so after giving much thought to the subject the guardians of the Louvre hit on an ingenious means of getting out of the difficulty. The statue was taken down from its pedestal, and laid in an oak coffin filled with wadding. In the dead of night some men who could be depended upon brought the coffin with its precious contents to a secret door in the Louvre, where it was taken up by some others and carried to a spot known only to themselves, where a crypt had been prepared for (he goddess in the cellars of the Prefecture de Police. The hiding place was at the end of one of the numerous secret passages in the Prefecture. A wall was built in front of the spot where the Venus was laid, and covered over wi'h rubbish, so as to give it the appearance of antiquity. To make assurance doubly sure, a heap of documents of some importance was laid in front of this wali, ant' a second wall was then run up, so as to make it appear that the hiding place was made for the documents. Here the Venus remained during the whole period of the siege. After the first siege it was proposed to replace her on her pedestal, but when the Commune was declared, the guardians wisely determined to leave her where she was. Directly the army of Versailles resumed possession of the capital the guardians hastened to the Prefecture. The still smoking ruins of the Prefecture were carefully removed and among them was found the oak coffin uninjured. "A waterpipe had miraculously saved the statue ; we might now apply at Heidelberg, *-Pesestat invicta Venus ! " The coffin was brought'back to the Louvre, and opened before a commission appoint.ed for the purpose. "Every one leaned forward eagerly to look Lying in her soft bed in a position which quite altered her usual appearance, her mouth half open as if to breathe the fresh air, she seemed to look gratefully on her preservers with that irresistibly charming smile which is unknown to modern lips." All her features and limbs were complete; no injury had been done to the marble by the damp of the crypt in which it had so long been buried.