  High precision measurements of the differential cross sections for $\pi^0$
photoproduction at forward angles for two nuclei, $^{12}$C and $^{208}$Pb, have
been performed for incident photon energies of 4.9 - 5.5 GeV to extract the
${\pi^0 \to \gamma\gamma}$ decay width. The experiment was done at Jefferson
Lab using the Hall B photon tagger and a high-resolution multichannel
calorimeter. The ${\pi^0 \to \gamma\gamma}$ decay width was extracted by
fitting the measured cross sections using recently updated theoretical models
for the process. The resulting value for the decay width is $\Gamma{(\pi^0 \to
\gamma\gamma)} = 7.82 \pm 0.14 ~({\rm stat.}) \pm 0.17 ~({\rm syst.}) ~{\rm
eV}$. With the 2.8% total uncertainty, this result is a factor of 2.5 more
precise than the current PDG average of this fundamental quantity and it is
consistent with current theoretical predictions.
