Olivier Voutier was a just a 23 year-old ensign on board the French schooner Estafette when the ship docked on a small island at the backwater of the Ottoman empire. Having nothing better to do, he and several friends went to the local market to see if they could pick up any good antiquities. They did not find anything notable for sale, but a nearby farmer digging for rocks in a wall he was building did uncover pieces of a striking statue of a woman.

On this day, April 8 in 1820, one of the most famous statues in the world, the Venus de Milo, was found buried amidst rubble in a field. It was broken into several pieces — an upper torso, then the legs, and part of the right hip that seemingly connected the parts.

The nose was chipped and the statue’s arms could not be found, but Voutier, who was an avid student of history, was convinced he had a masterpiece on his hands. Voutier and another ensign who arrived days later convinced several well-placed French aristocrats to buy the statue, and after a handsome payment to the farmer and a few greased palms for an agreement to release the statue to Turkish authorities, the Venus de Milo went to the Louvre.