Museum of Apoxyomenos

In 1999 a Belgian diver found a bronze statue lying on the seabed off Losinj at about 45 metres, where it had rested for some two thousand years after going overboard or down with a ship. It is an apoxyomenos - an athlete scraping oil and dust from his skin with a strigil - a Greek type known mostly through Roman marble copies, and this is one of very few surviving bronzes of it. Recovery in 1999 was followed by years of conservation in Zagreb, and in 2016 it was installed in a restored palace on the Mali Losinj waterfront converted specifically for it, where the route through the building leads to a single lit room holding the figure.

What you actually see

• A Greek bronze from the seabed - found at about 45 metres in 1999.
• An athlete with a strigil - a type usually known only in marble copies.
• Years of conservation - before the statue went on display in 2016.
• A building built around one object - the whole route leads to it.

When to go

Year round, with reduced winter hours. Two hours.

Honest expectations

This is one statue, and the museum is designed as a slow approach to it - visitors wanting a large collection should know that. Timed entry applies in busy periods. Photography is restricted in the final room.

Nearby

Mali Losinj's harbour is outside; Osor is north on the road to Cres.