Museum of Apoxyomenos
In 1997, a Belgian diver discovered an ancient bronze statue of a young athlete in the seabed near Lošinj. He had it excavated and sent to Zagreb for restoration, which lasted for six years and showed that the statue had been submerged for nearly 2,000 years—indeed, it dates to either the 2nd or 1st century B.C.E. The fact that the statue, later named Apoxyomenos, was almost perfectly preserved—it was only missing its eyes and a little finger on the left hand—left researchers completely baffled. It made the museum rounds for a few years, visiting the Louvre, the British Museum, and other A-list institutions before finding its permanent home in 2016, inside this palace in the heart of Mali Lošinj.
