Greece’s negotiations with the Louvre for the return of the Nike of Samothrace to Greece have proved fruitless, however an exact replica of the original marble statue has temporarily been placed at the coastal avenue of Alexandroupolis before it is transferred to Samothrace.
Late regional councillor George Pavlidis asked for two exact 3D replicas of the statue from the Louvre.
Evros Vice-Governor Dimitris Petrovic said that the “idea to ask the Louvre Museum for a 3D digitized archive in order to construct a faithful copy was born in 2012 when we visited the museum of Samothrace,” Petrovic said, explaining that the copy of the statue already at the local museum was of poor quality.
“The copy of the Nike of Samothrace was constructed with marble from Thassos Island at a factory in Drama, and its dimensions are exactly the same as the original’s; it weighs 6.5 tons,” Petrovic told the Athens Macedonian News Agency (AMNA).
The reproduction was funded by Elias Kyriakides, the owner of a large marble company who owned the appropriate robotics to sculpt the replica. It took three months to outline the sculpting points of the eighteen-ton statue.
“It then required another three months and two School of Tinos marble craftsmen to sculpt out the details, completing the beautiful copy in the summer of 2018,” said Petrovic.
The replica will remain in the Alexandroupolis prefecture courtyard, and is made of marble that is durable to open-air weather. Once its base is prepared, it will be moved to the island of Samothrace by the Archaeological Service.