AFP via Art Daily:
The Louvre museum will launch an appeal for one million euros in donations to restore The Winged Victory of Samothrace, a second-century BC marble statue of the Greek goddess Nike and one of the world’s most famous sculptures. The appeal will be launched by the famed Paris museum on Tuesday, the day the statue will be removed from its normal site at the top of an imposing staircase. The Winged Victory is one of the Louvre’s main attractions along with the Mona Lisa and a statue of Venus de Milo. Sculpted in white and grey marble, the Winged Victory portrays the goddess standing on the prow of a ship. The headless figure was discovered in Samothrace in 1863. The Daru staircase which houses the Samothrace statue will also be renovated “without shutting off this major access which is used by seven million visitors every year,” museum official Ludovic Laugier told AFP. The cost of the renovation will amount to four million euros both for the staircase and the statue. The museum has already raised three million euros ($3.9 million) in donations from Nippon Television Holdings, Fimalac and Bank of America Merrill Lynch.
Donations can be made online on http://www.louvresamothrace.fr and http://www.tousmecenes.fr.
- via: Louvre appeals for funds to restore iconic statue (Art Daily)
The coverage in the Greek Reporter adds some interesting details:
[…] The new campaign is called Everybody Can Be Maecenas and will begin Sept. 3 when the famed sculpture will be removed from viewing from one of the most advantageous spots in the museum and not returned until the summer of 2014.
Winged Victory suffered the same fate as the Parthenon Marbles that were stolen from the Acropolis by Lord Elgin and now reside in the British Museum. Victory was discovered in April 1863 by the French consul and amateur archaeologist Charles Champoiseau, who stole it and sent it to Paris. […]
- via: Louvre Asks Donations For Nike Repair (Greek Reporter)
The two websites mentioned above, by the way, are identical … and it appears they have no donations as of this writing (but they have just gone online, of course). I strongly suspect I’m not the only one who sees a major marketing opportunity for a certain footwear company to bring this to fruition rather more quickly … I’ve never quite understood why they haven’t played up this association in the past …
rogueclassicism 