Full to bursting

The Sistine Chapel in Rome is one of the holiest sites in Christendom, the place where innumerable popes have been elected across the ages. It is also a popular tourist destination. The Vatican Museums (of which the chapel is, to many, the jewel in the crown) attracted a record 5.89m visitors last year, almost as many as the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, which is nearly five times bigger. The crowds are a financial boon. According to the director, Antonio Paolucci, the museums generate around €80m ($87m) from ticket revenue each year and another €20m from merchandising and corporate hospitality. Of that total, roughly half goes toward the museums’ costs (including paying for a staff of 800) and the rest is surplus revenue for the Vatican City.

But the crowds also pose a problem. Four times as many people visit the Sistine Chapel as did in 1980; on the busiest days more than 25,000 visitors a day pass through. Even in quieter periods, crowds wrap around its fortified walls, batting away selfie-stick vendors and touts offering unofficial queue-jumping tours. The carbon dioxide (CO2) exhalation, sweat and dust they bring in with them endanger the Renaissance frescoes by Michelangelo, Botticelli and other masters. In 2010 the Vatican commissioned a review of the frescoes; their only protection is a climate control system that was designed for less than half as many visitors. They found “very high” CO2 levels on peak days, with damaging consequences. Over time, it has caused areas of whitening on the painted south wall—below the celebrated cycle of frescoes devoted to Moses.

The Vatican is starting to grapple with the problem. Last October Mr. Paolucci, a former Italian culture minister, unveiled a €3m upgrade of the chapel’s climate-control and lighting systems, which was paid for by the manufacturers. A virtual Sistine Chapel pavilion is now being planned so that visitors spend less time inside the real one. Whether this will be a full-sized replica or a digital simulation is still to be decided. Mr. Paolucci has also been talking about handing out intelligent eyewear (Google Glass-type accessories) that would allow visitors to explore the chapel in 3D. Another plan is to limit the number of visitors. Once they reach 6m—probably sometime next year—only those with reserved tickets will be allowed in. Walk-in travelers, even pilgrims coming from afar, can now queue for €16 tickets. In future, they will be turned away. How is he reacting? So far, the pontiff has let the director get on with his work. He has also shown a realistic—and, to some, relaxed—attitude towards the chapel.

Last October Pope Francis allowed guests of the Porsche Travel Club to attend a concert of music by Rossini inside the chapel as part of their €5,000-per-person tour of Rome. In exchange, says Mr. Paolucci, the pope received a “substantial cheque” from Porsche for his charities. In January, continuing a papal tradition, Francis baptized 33 babies in the chapel—and invited mothers to breastfeed while there. Some places are more crowded than the Vatican. The Louvre in Paris, the world’s most visited museum, drew 9.3m people last year, most of whom gathered around Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa”. The Louvre’s president, Jean-Luc Martinez, is trying to find ways of luring visitors to other parts of the museum.

But as Mr. Paolucci points out, the Louvre can always move the painting to a bigger space if need be. That is not an option for him. Italy has many other sites with endangered art, notably the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua, frescoed by Giotto. There, no more than 25 visitors are allowed in at a time, and they must spend 15 minutes in an air-conditioned waiting room first. Mr. Paolucci swears that he will avoid replicating that “clinical horror” at the Sistine Chapel. Yet in the years ahead, when the frescoes are even more fragile, the Vatican may find it has no choice.

MARCH 14TH–20TH 2015

Дата добавления: 2015-10-16