The Palermo fragment, also known as Fagan slab from the name of the artist and British consul Robert Fagan who owned it, is a 2,500-year-old marble sculpture fragment of the foot and dress of the ancient Greek goddess Artemis.[1]

The Palermo fragment was taken by Lord Elgin from the Parthenon in the early 19th century and given to the British Consul to Sicily in 1816.[2] For the past two centuries, the fragment had been kept at the Salinas Archaeological Museum in Palermo.[3] Greece's 13-year campaign for the return of the fragment ended on 24 September 2008, when Italian President Giorgio Napolitano delivered the fragment to Athens on a temporary loan.[4] This move was anticipated to strengthen Greece's request for the British Museum to return the Elgin Marbles.[5] In 2022, the fragment was loaned again to the Acropolis Museum and reunited with the rest of the Parthenon frieze. The fragment is again on a temporary loan of four years, with an option for another four, but the intention of the Sicilian authorities is to keep extending the loan indefinitely.[6]

See also

• Palermo Stone

References