You know of her, even if you haven’t seen her: The Venus de Milo, Aphrodite of Milos. She’s sculpted from marble, and her name alone speaks of a divine beauty unparalleled by anything mortal. And yet this most famous Venus is broken beyond repair: Both her arms are missing. As with many celebrated classical statues, our appreciation of the Venus de Milo is shaped by loss. The American writer Charles Fort explained, “To a child she is ugly. When a mind adjusts to thinking of her as a completeness, even though, by physiologic standards, incomplete, she is beautiful.” For archaeologists and historians, these incomplete masterpieces are a puzzle to be solved: Reconstructions of the Venus de Milo suggest her arms were in motion, holding a spinner with a This story is from Kinfolk Issue Thirty-Two Buy Now Related Stories Arts & Culture Issue 28 Falling Short Forget CSI. Hair is a notoriously tricky witness. Arts & Culture Issue 27 Day in The Life: Ramdane Touhami Once homeless on the streets of Paris, entrepreneur Ramdane Touhami now presides over some of the city’s finest addresses with his beauty empire. Arts & Culture Issue 44 Hannah Traore The art world's next big thing is a gallerist. Arts & Culture Issue 44 The False Mirror Compositions inspired by the iconic clouds—and surrealist sensibilities—of René Magritte. Arts & Culture Issue 44 Boaz Nechemia Meet Jerusalem’s favorite weatherman. Arts & Culture Issue 44 Fredi Otto One scientist's mission to prove the link between extreme weather and climate change.
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