The design and synthesis of polyoxometalates with specific structures and properties requires synthetic methodologies that enable framework morphology and surface functionality to be manipulated in a rational fashion and, although some progress has been made in recent years, there is still enormous scope for new, systematic chemistry in this area. Since the initial work by Knoth, [1] a particularly fruitful approach has been the attachment of organometal or organometalloid groups to lacunary species such as the tungstate Keggin fragments [PW 11 O 39 ] 7À , [SiW 11 O 39 ] 8À , [SiW 10 O 36 ] 8À , [PW 9 O 34 ] 9À , and [SiW 9 O 34 ] 10À , and derivatives resulting from this strategy have been reviewed recently. [2] However, reactions involving the metathesis of labile halides, a ubiquitous method for ligand manipulation in synthetic organometallic and metalorganic chemistry, are not generally available for the surface functionalization of polyoxometalates because of the paucity of suitable halogenated derivatives. Although several fluoropolyoxoanions have been characterized, [2] and polyoxometalates containing heterometal ± halide bonds have been prepared from reactions between lacunary anions and heterometal halides, [3] previously reported attempts to halogenate a polyoxometalate surface to produce reactive M ± X sites resulted instead in degradation of the polyoxometalate framework and the production of low-nuclearity oxohalide complexes. [4] Herein we report the first successful halogenation of Keggin derivatives [PW 9 O 34 ] 9À and [NaPW 11 O 39 ] 6À