Overview
- Scaffolding is now in place and the mural is fully covered by a high-definition reproduction to enable close cleaning without closing the chapel.
- The Vatican Museums’ Paintings and Wooden Materials Restoration Laboratory is carrying out the work, with restorer Paolo Violini citing a diffuse whitish veil from airborne microparticles that has dulled contrasts.
- Museum officials say the cleaning seeks to recover Michelangelo’s intended chromatic and luminous qualities and fully restore the work’s expressive complexity.
- The Sistine Chapel remains open to visitors during the campaign, who will see the reproduction while the original stays concealed.
- This marks the first major intervention since the 1994 restoration led by Gianluigi Colalucci, on a 180-square-meter masterpiece painted between 1536 and 1541 that helps draw more than six million visitors to the Vatican Museums each year.