The Palermo fragment is a 2,500 years 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 has been kept at the Salinas Archaeological Museum in Palermo. Greece's 13-year campaign for the return of the fragment finally ended on September 24, 2008, when Italian President Giorgio Napolitano delivered the fragment to Athens. It is anticipated that the move will strengthen Greece's request for the British Museum to return the Elgin Marbles.
Famous quotes containing the word fragment:
“There is no mystery in a looking glass until someone looks into it. Then, though it remains the same glass, it presents a different face to each man who holds it in front of him. The same is true of a work of art. It has no proper existence as art until someone is reflected in it—and no two will ever be reflected in the same way. However much we all see in common in such a work, at the center we behold a fragment of our own soul, and the greater the art the greater the fragment.”
—Harold C. Goddard (1878–1950)