Sistine Chapel in danger from sweat, dust, hair of 4m visitors a year

London(ANI): A Vatican museum director has revealed that the famous Sistine Chapel is facing the risk of serious damage from the sweat, dust, and hair generated by more than four million visitors a year.

Professor Antonio Paolucci said unless the climate control equipment was updated, the 500-year-old frescoes that adorn the ceiling of the Renaissance masterpiece would be severely damaged.

The revelations come at the end of a month long clean up of the Sistine Chapel, which saw the removal of "several kilos of dust, powder, human hair and material fibres".
 
"Every day we get between 15-20,000 visitors to the Sistine Chapel and that works out at more than 4 million a year," the Daily Mail quoted Paolucci, a former Culture Minister, who was appointed director of the Vatican Museums by Pope Benedict XVI in 2007, as saying.

"These people sweat, breathe and produce dust - you will be amazed how much dust a human body gives off - and they also bring in material fibres and loose hair.

"In essence there are too many people at a time and the climate control is not sufficient to cope with these enormous level of humidity produced by the sheer number of tourists," he stated.

Paolucci added that the dust off operation with specially made fine goat hair brushes had been the first every four years but because of the amount removed would now probably have to take place every year.

"At some stage I will have to speak with the technicians about the climate control machines to get them updated so we can preserve the Sistine Chapel for future generations," he added.