Satyr statue fished from the sea

Italy unveiled an ancient Greek bronze statue of a dancing satyr on Tuesday, five years after Sicilian fishermen dragged it from the Mediterranean seabed.

The 2,500-year-old satyr went on public display inside Italy’s parliament in Rome, where it will spend two months before being moved to a permanent home in Mazara del Vallo, the fishing village in western Sicily nearest to where it was found.

The satyr is missing both arms and one leg, but the head and torso are remarkably well-preserved despite centuries spent at the bottom of the sea. No one knows how it ended up 1,600 feet underwater off Sicily.

Experts from Italy’s art restoration institute spent four years cleaning the sculpture and fitting it with a new internal steel structure to help it stand upright.