Part of the Elgin Marbles has left Britain for the first time since they were taken from the Parthenon in 1803, on loan to a Russian museum, the British Museum said on Friday.

The museum has loaned one of the statues -- taken from Greece by British diplomat Lord Elgin and which Athens has repeatedly demanded be returned -- to Russia's State Hermitage Museum.

The sculpture of the Greek river god Ilissos, a reclining male figure, will be displayed in the St. Petersburg museum from this Saturday until January 18 to celebrate the museum's 250th anniversary.