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it didn’t delay his diplomatic mission.
    Either the next day or the day after, May 4 or 5, d’Urville sailed with the
Chevrette
through the Bosporus and into the Black Sea as it continued its scientific voyage. On May 6 the
Estafette
anchored in Constantinople, with Robert the Devil in command and Voutier on board. The
Estafette
had come to Constantinople in order to take Marcellus on his diplomatic tour. Now Melos had become the first stop on that tour, but the winds did not cooperate. The
Estafette
was unable to leave before May 15 and didn’t arrive at Melos until a week later. During all that time it seems impossible that Marcellus and the two naval officers—Voutier, who had discovered the statue, and Robert the Devil, who had seen it—wouldn’t have discussed it. And wouldn’t Voutier have shown Marcellus his drawings? Evidently, he did not. In the extensive memoir Marcellus published about this voyage, he never mentions Voutier at all.
Marcellus negotiates a purchase
    A S THE
E STAFETTE
glided into the harbor atMelos early on the morning of May 22, 1820, Marcellus and the crew were in a joyful mood: After a week at sea they had at last arrived at their destination. But they were greeted by a sight so alarming and so coincidental that they couldn’t help but laugh out loud. There out in the bay was the Venus. It was in a lifeboat that sat deep in the water because of its heavy load. A group of Russian sailors were rowing it toward another ship anchored in the harbor. In a memoir he published decades later, Voutier says he was incredulous. “Look,” he shouted. “Someone’s taking our statue away. This can’t be real.”
    But it was. It had been more than a month since Brest had received the promise from the primates that the statue would not be sold until he had received further instructions. In the meantime French ships had come and gone from Melos, but none had brought any word from Constantinople. Oconomos had been there on the island all the while and had become more and more insistent. Finally he had promisedYorgos 750 francs and wrenched the statue away practically by force. He then had it taken down to the harbor and tried to book passage on a ship.
    At this point Vice-consul Brest proved he could be both decisive and effective under the right circumstances. Claiming that the sale was illegitimate, and most likely hinting about the results of disregarding French power in the Aegean, he persuaded the captains of all the ships in the harbor to refuse to take the statue. After all, at this point the captains had nothing to lose: The wind was against them, so they couldn’t leave the harbor anyway. Why not humor Brest? But Oconomos kept offering more and more money, until finally the captain of a Russian ship agreed to take the statue. His sailors rowed to shore to fetch it, rowed back, and loaded it on board as Marcellus and thesailors on the
Estafette
watched helplessly. Luckily for them, the winds had become even stronger and were still contrary to leaving the harbor.
    The moment the
Estafette
anchored, Brest rowed out and came aboard. He told Marcellus what had happened. The count, annoyed by the way the vice-consul had been treated by the islanders and propelled, as he put it, “by the ardent desires of a young heart eager to fight against apparently impossible odds,” resolved to seize the statue for himself at any price even if “later she would not justify the excesses of my zeal.”
    Marcellus immediately began the fight against apparently impossible odds. First he ordered Robert the Devil to stop the Russian ship if it should try to leave with the statue. Then he went ashore and made the long climb to Castro. Establishing himself in Brest’s house, he sent for the primates. When the three men arrived, he asked to be taken to the Russian ship to see the statue. The primates refused. Angry, Marcellus began to lecture them. They had arbitrarily refused to sell the statue to the agent of