Ancient City of Milos

It isn't known when the work was actually created but it was found by a peasant in 1820, buried in the ruins of the ancient city of Milos on the Aegean island of the same name. It was in pieces: the larger chunks of upper torso and legs and pieces of arms and hands. A French naval officer named Jules Dumont d'Unville realized the importance of the work when he saw it and arranged for its purchase by a French ambassador to Turkey. But the peasant wanted money and sold it to a priest, who was going to give it as a gift to someone in Constantinople. A representative for the ambassador (who didn't realize it had been sold out from under him) arrived to see the statue being loaded onto a boat. He made a deal to get the statue back.

The statue was put back together in the Louve excepting the left hand and arm were omitted since it was thought they weren't parts of the original statue due to their rougher craftsmanship. It has since been decided that they were original parts, left rough by the artist since they would have been above the eye line anyway- a common technique at the time. It was given to King Louis XVIII in 1821 but he eventually gave it back to the museum, where it remains today.