Restored Sistine Chapel Unveiled by Vatican

The Vatican today unveiled a multimillion-dollar restoration--paid for by a Japanese television network--of one of the world’s greatest art treasures, the ceiling Michelangelo painted for the Sistine Chapel.

For the first time in hundreds of years visitors will see the whole mammoth fresco in its original dazzling colors, freed from four centuries of dust and candle smoke.

The Renaissance master took more than 30 years between 1508 and 1541 to paint the story of how God created the world and chased Adam and Eve from paradise.

Asked if the end result put to rest a bitter controversy over whether the $3-million, 10-year restoration damaged the frescoes, project director Fabrizio Mancinelli told a news conference:

“We don’t want to enter into controversy. We did our best, and now we will explain what we did with an international conference of experts in Rome.”

Smoke from the candles, braziers and torches lighting papal services and conclaves to choose a new Pope dulled Michelangelo’s work over the centuries.

An exhibition on the restoration, which Pope John Paul II will open Saturday, boasts a life-size copy of one section that shows how Michelangelo, standing on a platform, had to paint huge, distorted figures to make them look lifelike from below.