​Apoxyomenos is coming home

Apoxyomenos is coming home

One of the biggest archaeological discoveries around the area of Lošinj and maybe the most important restauration project in Croatia is finally arriving to its place of discovery. By the end of April, Croatia’s Apoxyomenos will settle in its new home, which is Lošinj’s Museum of Apoxyomenos, we have been preparing and renovating the museum for years now to welcome its new famous occupant.

To remind ourselves, the sculpture was found by a Belgian tourist in 1996 by the isle of Vele Orjule, and it was taken out in April 1999. After several years of the process of restauration, it was exhibited in the Archaeological transfer and is now permanently moving to a newly renovated museum in the centre of Mali Lošinj.

The statue is an antique bronze and it represents an athlete scraping sweat and dust from his body after a competition. It is assumed that it dates back to the 1st century BC and is one of the 8 similar statues found so far, which were built as copies of the original one made in the 4th century BC. It is believed to be thrown in the Adriatic off a Roman ship either during a bad storm or as a sacrifice to the gods, since there were no wrecks found nowhere nearby on the seabed.

In any case, we eagerly expect the return of our centuries old neighbour and we wish for him to comfortably settle in, at his new museum for at least a few centuries to go. Welcome Apoxyomenos!