De la sortie de terre à la mise sous verre: la Vénus de Lespugue comme chef–d’œuvre de l’art mobilier paléolithique. Essai de biographie muséale

Discovered in August 1922 by the Count of Saint–Périer and given to the laboratory of Pale- ontology in the National Museum of Natural History of Paris a few months later, the Venus of Lespugue can be seen as a major Palaeolithic work. A lot of theories have tried to explain its meaning and function in Palaeolithic society, but its biography within the museum still remained to be done. This biography will help to examine the situation of the whole of Prehistory within the National Museum of Natural History, to understand the evolution of this institution during the last century, and to reevaluate the rank of masterpiece that has been attributed to the Venus in the new Musée de l’Homme