The statue was severely damaged by the Persians a decade later (480 BC) when they conquered Athens.

The statue depicts Nike (Victory), in the form of a draped woman with wings[2][3] running right, on top of an inscribed Ionic column.

[6] The text on the column is below (the brackets indicate text which is missing because of the destruction and has been restored by Catharine Keesling):[7] In 2010, the Nike monument was restored and put on display in the new Acropolis Museum, alongside a reconstruction showing how the monument may have originally looked.

The restored Nike monument was unveiled in 2010 as part of a series of events organised by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Tourism commemorating the 2,500th anniversary of the Battle of Marathon.

"[9] He also reminded the audience of the words that Miltiades said to Callimachus just before the polemarch cast his vote: “Everything now rests on you.”[9]