All photography
© Sylvie Ball

Discovered by a French expedition in 1863, this famous sculpture was found in many pieces on the Island of Samothrace, a small island in the North Aegean.  Also known as The Winged Victory, this statue is considered to be one of the finest examples of Hellenistic Greek Sculpture.  The goddess Nike rises up from the prow of a stone ship and faces the wind clad in rippling garments with her wings spread.   Her head, arms and a foot are missing.  A nearby display case contains some fragments of her hand that indicate that she may have held a wreath or a trumpet to proclaim a military victory for Rhodes.  This impressive sculpture looms over you while you ascend the Daru staircase.  

Visit this page at the Hellenic Ministry of Culture's website to find out more about Samothrace.
This picture (file) was scanned directly from the negative and has produced some green casts in the corners.  Making a c print from this negative might get rid of the green.  

This photograph was taken in April of 1989.   
You are number to visit this page.    
For further reading about the Nike of Samothrace here are some titles that I found on the web.  Some of these may be out of print. 

Dickins, Guy, (1972). Hellenistic Sculpture. Freeport, New York: Books for Libraries Press

Laisne, Claude, (1995). Art of Ancient Greece, Sculpture Painting Architecture. Paris: Finest S.A./Editions Pierre Terrail

Perowne, Stewart, (1974). The Archaeology of Greece and the Aegean. New York: Viking Press

Spivey, Nigel, (1997). Greek Art. London: Phaidon Press Limited

Spivey, Nigel, (1996). Understanding Greek Sculpture, Ancient Meanings, Modern Readings. London: Thames and Hudson Ltd.

Schuchhardt, Walter-Herwig, (1972). Greek Art. London: Weidenfeld and Nicolson