Palermo Fragment



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.

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. For the past two centuries, the fragment had been kept at the Salinas Archaeological Museum in Palermo. 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. This move was anticipated to strengthen Greece's request for the British Museum to return the Elgin Marbles. In 2022, the fragment was permanently returned to the Acropolis Museum, where it has been reunited with the rest of the Parthenon frieze.