I indicated yesterday that my wife and I thought we were entering the Egyptian wing of the Louvre. However, a wrong turn hurled us thousands of years and miles to ancient Greece instead. The Louvre has great powers of time and space, as do other museums.

I casually approached museum exploration, snapping pictures of whatever attracted my eye — I didn’t spend time reading descriptions. When I saw this statue alone in an elaborate alcove, I figured it was important.

Just before this blog post, using the power of Google, I discovered what I shot. Known as Athena of Velletri, this is a Roman copy of a lost Greek bronze found in a Roman villa near Velletri in 1797. The French bought it but lost it to the Neapolitan army before regaining it via the Treaty of Florence. It’s been on display at the Louvre since 1803.

Despite the statue’s elaborate details and eye-catching placement, we have an Italian copy of a Greek sculpture that the French bought. I know it sounds a heck of a lot less romantic when I boil it down like this.

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