As with the arms, the figure's head has never been found, but various other fragments have since been found: in 1950, a team led by Karl Lehmann unearthed the missing right hand of the Louvre's Winged Victory.The fingerless hand had slid out of sight under a large rock, near where the statue had originally stood; on the return trip home, Dr Phyllis Williams Lehmann identified the tip of the Goddess's ring finger and her thumb in a storage drawer at the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, where the second Winged Victory is displayed; the fragments have been reunited with the hand, which is now in a glass case in the Louvre next to the podium on which the statue stands.It stood on a rostral pedestal of gray marble from Lartos representing the prow of a ship (most likely a trihemiolia), and represents the goddess as she descends from the skies to the triumphant fleet.Before she lost her arms, which have never been recovered, Nike's right arm is believed to have been raised, The work is notable for its convincing rendering of a pose where violent motion and sudden stillness meet, for its graceful balance and for the rendering of the figure's draped garments, compellingly depicted as if rippling in a strong sea breeze.is a marble Hellenistic sculpture of Nike (the Greek goddess of victory), that was created about the 2nd century BC. Janson described it as "the greatest masterpiece of Hellenistic sculpture", The context of the Winged Victory of Samothrace, discovered in 1863, is controversial, with proposals ranging from the Battle of Salamis in 306 BC to the Battle of Actium in 31 BC as the event being celebrated.Since 1884, it has been prominently displayed at the Louvre and is one of the most celebrated sculptures in the world. Datings based on stylistic evaluation have been equally variable, ranging across the same three centuries, but perhaps tending to an earlier date.Scientific reviews were performed on the base (UV, Infrared, X-ray spectroscopy) prior to cleaning the surface of the marble.This effort aimed to respect the goals of the original restoration performed in 1883.
In 2013 a restoration effort was launched to improve the appearance of the sculpture.
Certainly, the parallels with figures and drapery from the Pergamon Altar (dated about 170 BC) seem strong.
The evidence for a Rhodian commission of the statue has been questioned, however, and the closest artistic parallel to the Nike of Samothrace are figures depicted on Macedonian coins.
Modern excavations suggest that the Victory occupied a niche above a theater and also suggest it accompanied an altar that was within view of the ship monument of Demetrius I Poliorcetes (337–283 BC).
Rendered in grey and white Thasian and Parian marble, the figure originally formed part of the Samothrace temple complex dedicated to the Great gods, Megaloi Theoi.