Vatican Museum
The lineups are long to enter the Vatican Museum. Revenues from the visitors are used to support charities. Popes through history have collected art and sculptures to protect it in the Vatican. That is how the museum collected so much.
When the museum was opened up to the public, reconstruction was required to provide entrance lobbies for the visitors. Crowd control and security require a lot of security personnel. Clean up requires another staff team.
Although pictures are allowed in most of the museum, some halls, such as the Sistine Chapel do not permit photos or videos.
Sometimes minor repairs are required, and sometimes major updating is done. Recently each of the popes has focused on restoring a particular hall. Most of the paintings and frescoes have been restored including the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel.
Although interest in preserving history became an official office in the Vatican around 1935, in 1970 more technology became available and space was dedicated to specific laboratories for metals, stone, textiles, pigments and more. More were added in the 1980’s and now there are more than 8 labs doing research on preservation.
What is it with preserving body parts of dead popes in Cathedrals all over the world? In some cases the whole body is preserved and on display below the altar. Answers.
The sculptures are immense. To get a feeling for the relative size, look at the size of the people in the last image below.
– Where do you want to go today? –
Click to the official Vatican Museum website
http://www.museivaticani.va/content/museivaticani/en.html
What more can I saw than beautiful!