Art: Fat Hand

One of the most famed statues in the world is the Winged Victory. It was pieced together in 1863 from some 300 fragments found in a boulder-strewn valley on the Aegean island of Samothrace. But the head and arms were missing; ever since, archaeologists have dreamed of finding more of the missing bits. This summer a team of diggers under the supervision of N.Y.U.’s Professor Karl Lehmann uncovered a right hand without fingers, and later, one finger that fitted the hand. Louvre Curator Jean Charbonneaux, on the spot when the find was made, announced last week that he had “no doubt whatever” that it belongs to the Victory, now in the Louvre.

Charbonneaux and Lehmann paid a bonus of 5,000 Greek drachmas (33¢) to the lucky Greek digger who had made the find. Later, they compared the hand with those of a number of American girl students who were taking part in the digging. “It was an exquisite piece of sculpture,” Charbonneaux recalled. “But much more plump than their nervous modern hands. It looked more like that of our fat female Greek cook.”

Charbonneaux had small hopes of getting the hand for the Louvre, since the Greek government no longer permits its antique treasures to leave the country, but he did not especially care: “Even if a whole arm was discovered we probably would not want to fit it onto our statue because it would spoil the whole effect. A statue without a head and with only one arm looks rather awkward.”

Lehmann’s eager team went right on digging, hoping to find more.