Gianluigi Colalucci’s fourteen-year restoration stripped centuries of soot from Michelangelo’s ceiling, funded by a Japanese broadcaster’s exclusive photo rights, and critics still argue it removed the artist’s own finishing touches.
restoration
The twenty-one-year job that gave back an honest ruin
Leonardo’s experimental technique made The Last Supper start decaying almost at once. A 1978–1999 restoration stripped away centuries of repainting, dividing critics between an authentic wreck and a lost masterpiece.