' The Triumphal Quadriga ' or ' Horses of St:Marks ' Lysippos . Greek , Bronze , circa 4th century BC. St: Marks, Venice

'The Triumphal Quadriga' is a set of bronze statues of four horses, originally part of a monument depicting a quadriga (a four horse carriage used for chariot racing) which have been set into the facade of St Marks Basilica in Venice, since the sack of Constantinople in 1204. The sculptures date from classical antiquity and have been attributed to the 4th century Greek sculptor Lysippos. It is certain that the horses, along with the qaudriga with which they were depicted were long displayed at the Hippodrome of Constantinople. They were still there in 1204, when they were looted by Venetian forces as part of the sack of the capital of the Byzantium Empire in the fourth crusade. Shortly after the Fourth Crusade they were installed on the terrace of the facade of St.Marks Basilica. In 1797, Napoléon had the horses removed and carried off to Paris , where they were used in the design of the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel together with a quadriga. In 1815 the horses were returned to Venice by Captain Dumaresq . He had fought at the Battle of Waterloo and was with the allied forces in Paris where he was selected, by the Emperor of Austria , to take the horses down from the Arc de Triomphe and return them to St Marks in Venice. For the skillful manner in which he performed this work the Emperor gave him a gold snuff box with his initials in diamonds on the lid. The horses remained in place over St Marks until the early 1980's, when the ongoing damage from growing air pollution forced their replacement with exact replicas. Since then, the originals ( here depicted) have been on display just inside the basilica.