Editing Winged Victory of Samothrace (section)

==Discovery and restorations==

===In the 19th century===
[[Image:Victoire de Samothrace parties conservées de la statue.jpg|thumb|''Nike of Samothrace'': the conserved parts of the statue, after Benndorf, 1880]]

In 1863, Charles Champoiseau (1830–1909), acting chief of the Consulate of France in Adrianopolis (now [[Edirne]] in Turkey), undertook from March 6 to May 7 the exploration of the ruins of the [[Samothrace temple complex|sanctuary of the Great Gods]] on the island of [[Samothrace]]. On April 13, 1863, he discovered part of the bust and the body of a large female statue in white marble accompanied by numerous fragments of drapery and feathers.<ref>Champoiseau 1880, p. 11</ref> He recognised this as the goddess Niké, Victory, traditionally represented in Greek antiquity as a winged woman. In the same place was a jumble of about fifteen large grey marble blocks whose form or function was unclear: he concluded it was a funerary monument.<ref>Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, p. 74, fig. 50, 51</ref> He decided to send the statue and fragments to the Louvre Museum, and to leave the large blocks of grey marble on site. Departing Samothrace at the beginning of May 1863, the statue arrived in [[Toulon]] at the end of August and in Paris on May 11, 1864.<ref>Hamiaux 2001, pp. 154–162</ref>

A first restoration was undertaken by [[Adrien Prévost de Longpérier]], then curator of Antiquities at the Louvre, between 1864 and 1866. The main part of the body (2.14&nbsp;m from the upper belly to the feet) is erected on a stone base, and largely completed by fragments of drapery, including the fold of [[himation]] that flares behind the legs on the Nike. The remaining fragments – the right part of the bust and a large part of the left wing – too incomplete to be placed on the statue, are stored. Given the exceptional quality of the sculpture, Longpérier decided to present the body alone, exhibited until 1880 among the Roman statues, first in the Caryatid Room, then briefly in the Tiber Room.<ref>Hamiaux 2001, pp. 163–171, fig. 4, 5; Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, p. 75, fig. 52</ref>

[[Image:Tétradrachme en argent représentant Poséidon à droite.jpg|thumb|left|[[Tetradrachm]] of Demetrios Poliorcetes (293–292 BC). Obverse: Nike before the ship; reverse: Poseidon.]]

Beginning in 1875, Austrian archaeologists who, under the direction of [[Alexander Conze]], had been excavating the buildings of the Samothrace sanctuary since 1870, studied the location where Champoiseau had found the Victory. Architect [[Aloïs Hauser]] drew the grey marble blocks left on-site and apprehended that, once properly assembled, they would form the tapered bow of a warship, and that, placed on a base of slabs, they served as the basis for the statue.<ref>Conze Hauser Benndorf 1880, pp. 52–58, plate 60–64</ref> Tetradrachmas of [[Demetrius I of Macedon|Demetrios Poliorcetes]] struck between 301 and 292 BC, representing a Victory on the bow of a ship, wings outstretched, give a good idea of this type of monument.<ref>Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, p. 78, fig. 56</ref> For his part, the specialist in ancient sculpture [[Otto Benndorf]] studied the body of the statue and the fragments kept in reserve at the Louvre and restored the statue blowing into a trumpet that she raises with her right arm, as on the coin.<ref>Conze Hauser Benndorf 1880, pp. 59–66</ref> The two men thus managed to make a model of the Samothrace monument as a whole.<ref>Hamiaux 2001, pp. 194, 195, fig. 15, 16; Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, fig. 57</ref>

Champoiseau, informed of this research, undertook a second mission to Samothrace from August 15 to 29, 1879, for the sole purpose of sending the blocks of the base and the slabs of the Victory base to the Louvre.<ref>Champoiseau 1880, pp. 12–17</ref> He abandoned on the island the largest block of the base, unsculpted.<ref>Champoiseau 1880, p. 14; Hamiaux 2001, p. 184, fig. 10</ref> Two months later, the blocks reached the Louvre Museum, where in December an assembly test was carried out in a courtyard.<ref>Hamiaux 2001, pp. 188, 189, fig. 12–13</ref>

The curator of the Department of Antiquities, [[Félix Ravaisson-Mollien]], then decided to reconstruct the monument, in accordance with the model of Austrian archaeologists. On the body of the statue, between 1880 and 1883 he restored the belt area in plaster, placed the right part of the marble bust, recreated the left part in plaster, attached the left marble wing with a metal frame, and replaced the entire right wing with a plaster model.<ref>Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, pp. 66–79, fig. 11–14.</ref> But he did not reconstruct the head, arms or feet. The ship-shaped base is rebuilt and completed, except for the broken bow of the keel, and there is still a large void at the top aft. The statue was placed directly on the base. The entire monument was then placed from the front, on the upper landing of the [[Escalier Daru|Daru staircase]], the main staircase of the museum.<ref>Hamiaux 2001, p. 208, fig. 20</ref>

Champoiseau returned to Samothrace a third time in 1891 to try to obtain the Victory's head, but without success. He did however bring back debris from the drapery and base, a small fragment with an inscription and fragments of coloured plaster.<ref>Hamiaux 2001, pp. 203–205</ref>

===In the 20th century===
[[Image:Maquette de Benndorf en 1880.jpg|thumb|Model of the ''Victory of Samothrace'' after Benndorf and Hauser, 1880.]]

The presentation of the Victory was modified in 1934 as part of a general redevelopment of the Daru museum and staircase, whose steps were widened and redecorated. The monument was staged to constitute the crowning of the staircase: it was advanced on the landing to be more visible from the bottom of the steps, and was put on a modern 45&nbsp;cm-high block of stone, supposed to evoke a combat bridge at the bow of the ship.<ref>Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, pp. 70–74, fig. 16–18</ref> This presentation remained unchanged until 2013.

At the declaration of the Second World War in September 1939, the Victory statue was moved along with other artefacts to the [[Château de Valençay]] (Indre) until the Liberation, and was replaced at the top of the stairs without damage in July 1945.

American excavators from [[New York University]], under the direction of [[Karl Leo Heinrich Lehmann|Karl Lehmann]], resumed exploration of the sanctuary of the Great Gods in Samothrace in 1938. In July 1950, they associated Louvre curator [[Jean Charbonneaux]] with their work, who discovered the palm of the statue's right hand in the Victory site. Two fingers preserved at the Kunsthistorische Museum in Vienna since the Austrian excavations of 1875 were reattached to the palm.<ref>Charbonneaux 1952, pp. 44–46, plate 12–13; Hamiaux Laugier Martinez 2014, p. 76, fig. 20.</ref> The palm and fingers were then deposited in the Louvre Museum, and displayed with the statue in 1954.

Two pieces of grey marble that were used to moor fishing boats on the beach below the sanctuary were retrieved and reassembled at the museum in 1952. These were studied in 1996 by [[Ira Mark]] and [[Marianne Hamiaux]], who concluded that these pieces, jointed, constitute the block of the base abandoned by Champoiseau in 1879.<ref>Hamiaux 2006, p. 32-38, fig. 35–40</ref>

===In the 21st century===
[[File:F4135 Paris Louvre victoire Samontrace rwk.jpg|thumb|left|The ''Winged Victory of Samothrace'' after the restoration of 2014.]]
[[File:Daru_staircase_Louvre_2007_05_13.jpg|thumb|right|The ''Nike of Samothrace'' at the Louvre Palace in Paris, at the top of the main staircase.]]

An American team led by [[James R. McCredie]] digitized the entire sanctuary to allow its 3D reconstruction between 2008 and 2014. [[B. D. Wescoat]] led the resumption of the study of the Victory enclosure and the small basic fragments preserved in reserve.

In Paris, the Louvre Museum restored the entire monument with two objectives: to clean all the surfaces and to improve the general presentation. The statue came down from its base to undergo scientific examination (UV, infrared, x-rays, microspectrography, marble analysis):<ref>Hamiaux, Laugier, Martinez 2014, pp. 91–103, fig. 70–87.</ref> traces of blue paint were detected on the wings and on a strip at the bottom of the mantle. The blocks of the base were disassembled one by one to be drawn and studied.<ref>Hamiaux, Laugier, Martinez 2014, pp. 106–108, fig. 89–92.</ref> The 19th-century restoration of the statue was preserved with a few details (thinning of the neck and attachment of the left arm);<ref>Hamiaux, Laugier, Martinez 2014, p. 108–118, fig. 92–106.</ref> fragments preserved in reserve at the Louvre were added (feather at the top of the left wing, a fold at the back of the chitôn); and the metal vice behind the left leg was removed. Castings of small joint fragments preserved in Samothrace were integrated into the base. A cast of the large ship block left in Samothrace was replaced by a metal base on a cylinder ensuring the proper balance of the statue.<ref>Hamiaux, Laugier, Martinez 2014, pp. 118–124, fig. 107–115.</ref> Once in place on the base, the colour contrast of the marbles of the two elements became obvious again. The whole was reassembled on a modern base, a little removed on the landing to facilitate the movement of visitors.

The Greek government considers the Winged Victory, like the [[Elgin Marbles]], illegally [[Looting|plundered]] and wants it [[Repatriation (cultural property)|repatriated]] to Greece. "If the French and the Louvre have a problem, we are ready to preserve and accentuate the Victory of Samothrace, if they return it to us", Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs [[Akis Gerondopoulos]] said in 2013.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Arkouli |first=Maria |date=2013-08-30 |title=Greece Wants Victory of Samothrace Back |work=Greek Reporter |url=https://greekreporter.com/2013/08/30/greece-wants-victory-of-samothrace-back/ |access-date=2023-02-22 |archive-date=2023-04-30 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230430165243/https://greekreporter.com/2013/08/30/greece-wants-victory-of-samothrace-back/ |url-status=live }}</ref>

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