The head of the Vatican Museums has warned he will be forced to limit
the number of visitors to the Sistine Chapel if its new air
conditioning and air purification systems don't significantly reduce
pollution levels.
Antonio Paolucci told a conference Thursday that he was confident the
new system, which is expected to be operational at the end of 2014,
would curb the dust, humidity and carbon dioxide that are dulling
Michelangelo's frescoed masterpiece.
But if the new system doesn't work, he says he would be forced to impose the "painful" solution of limiting visitors.
Some 5.5 million people are expected to visit the Vatican Museums
this year.
During high season some 20,000 people a day enter the
intimate Sistine Chapel, which was last restored in the 1990s.