The Vatican Museums may start staying open in the evening, director Antonio Paolucci said Thursday.''It's a matter of weighing the possible staffing costs against the estimated extra revenue,'' he said.
Paolucci said the idea was ''being studied'' but gave no indication when the move might be made.
Longer hours would ease the overcrowding and lines that tourists endure to see the Vatican's treasures.
The Vatican Museums, which include the Sistine Chapel and one of the world's largest art collections, are the biggest tourist draw in Italy, attracting some three million visitors a year.
In the high season lines stretch around the huge complex as tourists queue for hours to get in. Paolucci added that the restored Pauline Chapel next to the Sistine Chapel, containing Michelangelo's last two frescoes, will reopen on June 29 after a four-and-a-half-year restoration.
It may well be unveiled by Pope Benedict XVI, he said.
But the chapel, commissioned by Pope Paul III and completed in around 1540 by Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, is one of the few parts of the museums reserved for the pope's private use.
The chapel contains Michelangelo's Conversion of Saul and Crucifixion of St Peter, said to have influenced later artists like Caravaggio.
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(Source: NRCN)