The decision to renovate the vaulting of the Sistine Chapel was undertaken in 1 980. Due to the increasing air pollution in Rome and the loosening of the wall plaster, there was fear that certain parts of Michelangelo's painting would be damaged. The preservation work was planned for 12 years and assigned to one conservator, head of the studio for the preservation of paintings in the Vatican Museum - Gianluigi Collaluci. The current preservation work is in fact the third undertaking in the chapel's history that aims at a thorough cleaning of the vaulting. It is also the first for over two centuries and was preceded by thorough laboratory studies of the frescoes. The results of these studies made it possible to work out the proper techniques and methods of preservation. Already at the moment of setting up the scaffolding underneath the vaulting, questions arose whether the painting work should be submitted to preservation measures, or whether these would cause irreversible changes. As subsequent scenes were uncovered by the conservators, the discussion became more heated. The author of the article gives many arguments of the opponents as well as supporters of the current preservation methods. A full evaluation of the effects of these undertakings will be possible only with their completion, when the entire vaulting can be viewed.
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