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A middle-aged diver followed a quick little fish ever deeper, to the
bottom, 45 metres down. He’d never dived so deeply – although he has all
the equipment – as he’s an amateur. However, he decided to film the fish
and not to give up. He leant against the rocks for a moment to prepare his
camera. In the next second he realised with horror that it is the hand of a
large marine creature with its palm diluted, from tiny shells and limestone.
He fled.
The scene is one with a happy ending. The diver soon returned to the
seabed after realising that it was a sculpture ... It was twenty years ago that
Belgian Rene Wouters accidently came across a very important archaeo-
logical discovery while on holiday on the Croatian island of Lošinj in the
Adriatic Sea.
That sculpture recently received an entire museum to itself in the
town of Mali Lošinj. When they enter this museum, stray ‘cultural tourists’
who have never heard of Lošinj’s Apoxyomenos feel, just like Wouters, that
a sudden and happy coincidence has led to them discovering something
extraordinary. The English word serendipity - a happy outcome of an
unusual set of circumstances - best
describes this feeling.
In this small tourist town on
the Adriatic is the museum that
visitors will remember forever, a
true gem, not just archeologically,
but also architecturally.
Unlike the world’s major mu-
seums, with crowds that prevent a
true artistic experience, good small
museums are like ‘uplifting films’
with a happy ending. The Apoxy-
omenos Museum is just such a ‘feel
good’ experience.
What is Apoxyomenos? A
bronze Greek sculpture of incal-
culable value and beauty that lay
untouched in the Adriatic Sea for
two thousand years, it is actually the
statue of an athlete enshrined in the
moment after competing. The Greek
word apoxyomenos means “The
Scraper”, an athlete who cleanses
the body of oil, which has combined
with dust and sweat to form a thick
mixture which should be removed
prior to bathing with a small tool
known as a
strigil
, a scraper.
Ancient Greek athletes always
competed naked, as it was believed
that the external beauty naturally
built upon rectitude, virtue. Before
each ‘performance’ they anointed
the naked body with oil to protect
it from the sun or, even more, to
emphasise its beauty.
Apoxyomenos, the scraper, was
a common motif of Greek sculp-
tors. In the Vatican Museum is
especially preserved a Roman mar-
ble copy of the renowned Lysippos’
Scraper. So why is Lošinj’s Apox-
yomenos so valuable? Because it
is a Greek bronze sculpture, which
there were thousands of in ancient
times but of which very few were
preserved. Most were melted and
destroyed, while only parts of some
others survived...
In Vienna’s Kunsthistorisches
Museum is preserved an Apoxy-
omenos that was excavated in the
late 19
th
century near the Turkish
city of Ephesus. The statue is made
of over 200 pieces, while Lošinj’s
is almost completely intact.
Moreover, there are serious doubts
that the statue kept in Vienna is
actually a Roman copy of a Greek
statue, while experts agree that
the Lošinj Apoxyomenos is really
Greek, and likely originated in the
second century BC.
Najbolje očuvana statua
Apoksiomena-Strugača na
svetu nalazi se u muzeju
na jadranskom ostrvu
Lošinj u kom je i jedini
eksponat
e
The world’s best
preserved sculpture
of Apoxyomenos-The
Scraper is located in the
museum on the Adriatic
island of Lošinj, where it is
the only exhibit