OXFORD’S very own Venus De Milo has had her home at the Ashmolean Museum refurbished.
The museum’s world-famous Cast Gallery, which includes exact replicas of the iconic statue and Rome’s Trajan’s Column, has been united with the rest of the museum’s collection in a single building for the first time since 1960.
The collection, started in 1884, has been redisplayed to show the casts of ancient sculptures in the settings they would have originally been found, while new double doors and a promenade now link the gallery to the Museum’s Roman collection.
Prof Bert Smith said: “Visitors now have a fantastic place to see the monuments and sculptures of the ancient Mediterranean, and students from universities all over the country will have the opportunity to study sculpture in its fascinating historical contexts.”
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