The famed “Capitoline Venus”, one of the greatest and best-preserved Roman antiquities, is at Washington’s National Gallery of Art through September 5. 

The renowned sculpture has left Rome only once before -- when Napoleon seized it in 1797. It was returned in 1816 to the Capitoline Museum.

Rome’s Mayor Gianni Alemanno will officially present the marble sculpture on June 8 in the National Gallery’s West Building Rotunda, whose design was based on the Pantheon in Rome.

Mayor Alemanno and DC Mayor Vincent Gray will sign a proclamation declaring the two world capitals “sister cities”.

The six-feet, six-inch tall marble goddess of love was derived from the renowned Greek sculptor Praxiteles’ celebrated “Aphrodite of Cnidos”, circa 360 BC.

For more info: National Gallery of Art, www.nga.gov, National Mall, Constitution Avenue between 3rd and 9th Streets, NW, Washington, DC. 202-737-4215. Free admission.