Venus de Milo

Karl Voss (1825–1896) after an antique master. 1859

The “Venus de Milo” at the Kadriorg Art Museum (author unknown) is a copy of the partly surviving statue from the 2nd century BC, found on the island of Milo in 1820. A year later, King Louis XVIII of France donated the original to the Louvres. The magnificent Hellenistic sculpture, the missing hands of which even added excitement and drew attention, quickly became the star of the display, a symbol of the museum, and a model for thousands of copies.
The valuable marble copy at the Kadriorg Art Museum was made by the German sculptor Karl Voss in 1859 after a Roman copy. The copy was commissioned by the Baltic-German artist Carl Timoleon von Neff, the court painter of the Russian Emperor, for his neo-renaissance manor house in Muuga, in Lääne-Virumaa County. He had his manor decorated with copies of world-famous masterpieces. The copy of “Venus de Milo” at the Kadriorg Museum is 10 cm taller than the original in The Louvre.