Acropolis Museum Welcomes ‘Venus in a Gold Bikini’

Venus in a gold bikini. Photo source: Acropolis Museum.

The Acropolis Museum in Athens announced that it will temporarily house the sculpture “Venus in a gold bikini” from the National Archaeological Museum of Naples, on the occasion of International Women’s Day.

The sculpture will be hosted as part of the museum’s new series of exhibitions titled “Temporary and unexpected visitors”, which sees artwork from other world museums housed periodically either in relation to a celebratory event or unexpectedly. Until now, “Venus in a gold bikini” was housed at the “Secret Cabinet” of the Naples museum due to its rarity of decorative elements and unique quality.

Celebrating female beauty, the statuette’s exhibition will run until May 28 on the museum’s ground floor where admission is free and will be supported by a free bilingual explanatory leaflet and video.

Acropolis Museum in Athens.

Found in Pompeii among other ancient artwork in 1954, “Venus in a gold bikini” is made by white marble enriched with golden decoration alluding to the “golden Aphrodite” of the Homeric hymn: Iliad book 9, 389, “not though she vied in beauty with golden Aphrodite…”.

On the same day last year, the Acropolis Museum focused on the intellectual contribution of female poets in antiquity, presenting works by Greek composer Lena Platonos and performed by world-renowned Greek singer Maria Farantouri.

The Acropolis Museum is also programming a presentation for the rearrangement of the exhibition in the Archaic Acropolis Gallery with more details expected to be announced in the next few months.