Nov 03, 2015 Measures put in place to protect the Sistine Chapel and its priceless Michelangelo frescoes from damage recently paid off. Recent studies and technical tests at the Chapel showed that there is no need to carry out new restoration work.
According to the Vatican, carbon dioxide levels in the chapel have reduced greatly, making the famous venue safe and sound to receive visitors during the upcoming Jubilee Year.
To protect the chapel and the work of the Renaissance maestro, the Vatican last year installed a new climate control system to filter the air in the chapel. A new high-tech lighting system, programmed to cut damaging heat by more than half was also put in place.
Vittoria Cimino, Head of the Conservator’s Office, Vatican Museums said:
“In our opinion, the most interesting thing to come out of the studies is that the Sistine Chapel does not need to be restored again. The results of the restoration work carried out 20 years ago are still outstanding. Therefore, our efforts need to focus on preservation. Our attention, our commitments and our economic resources must focus on creating a suitable, controlled microclimate to prevent the emergence of dangerous conditions such as those we had noted starting to develop”.
In recent years, art historians and restorers have called for severe limits on the number of tourists allowed into the Sistine Chapel. However, the Vatican has confirmed that the risk on the chapel has been greatly reduced.
Speaking on this, Cimino went on to say
“The situation is under control as long as we manage to keep in check the level of carbon dioxide, which was far too high, and which we have more than halved, we’ve really reduced it. If we keep some other indicators under control, such as the temperature which used to be too low, triggering chemical mechanisms which created problems, so if we can control these two variables we have nothing to worry about,”.