This summer, thanks to the Bouches-du-Rhône Department, Arles welcomes an exceptional and mythical guest. The exhibition “The Passage of Venus”, presented from April 24 to October 31, 2026, at the Musée départemental Arles antique, marks the extraordinary return of the Venus of Arles to her native land. Usually housed at the Louvre Museum, this exceptional loan offers a rare opportunity to encounter this emblematic sculpture. The ancient icon returns to Provence for only the second time in 375 years an event as culturally significant as it is symbolic.
Discovered in 1651 among the ruins of the Ancient Theatre of Arles, this marble statue, created in the 1st century BC, is a remarkable Roman copy inspired by Praxiteles’ Aphrodite. From the moment of its discovery, it sparked fascination and desire. Louis XIV, captivated during a journey to Provence, had it transported to Versailles. Restored by François Girardon who added arms, a mirror, and an apple it later entered the Louvre, where it now stands in dialogue with the famed Venus de Milo. For more than two millennia, it has embodied the figure of the goddess of love and beauty, whose image has transcended civilizations and time.
Venus now returns to Arles, the heart of the exhibition “The Passage of Venus”, organized in partnership with the Louvre. Installed in the museum’s grand gallery, she will be accompanied by nearly eighty works, including thirty-three from the national collections. A constellation of ancient, modern, and contemporary works thus frames this long-awaited return, transforming the museum into a space of circulation and dialogue between eras.
In this unprecedented encounter, the figure of Venus regains her full poetic force, reaffirming the sovereign aura that was hers in Antiquity and the enduring power of the icon she remains today, traversing the centuries without losing any of her magnetism. She endures as one of the most precious symbols of Arles, the ancient city that saw her birth. The myth comes back to life at the very place of its origin.
