Rome, 23 February (LaPresse) – With the scaffolding now in place in the Sistine Chapel, extraordinary maintenance work on the Last Judgement has begun. ‘The cleaning of Michelangelo's magnificent fresco has begun,’ said Barbara Jatta, Director of the Vatican Museums. "Until the work is completed, which is expected to be by Holy Week, the Sistine Chapel will continue to welcome worshippers and visitors, while restorers from the Vatican Museums' Painting and Wooden Materials Restoration Laboratory will work on the large scaffolding screened by a cloth reproducing the image of the Last Judgement. The installation of the scaffolding was made possible thanks to the cooperation of the Directorate of Infrastructure and Services (headed by Engineer Salvatore Farina) of the Governorate of Vatican City State. The cleaning of the fresco is supported by the Florida Chapter of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums. We are grateful to Mary Viator and the entire Chapter for their generous support. All phases of the intervention will be documented by the Vatican Museums' Photographic Laboratory, creating a valuable record of the cleaning process which, by removing a slight patina invisible to the naked eye, will restore Michelangelo's colours to their former splendour. Some thirty years after the last conservation work, completed in 1994 under the supervision of Director General Carlo Pietrangeli and carried out by the Chief Restorer of the Vatican Museums' Painting and Wooden Materials Restoration Laboratory, Gianluigi Colalucci, it will be possible to admire Michelangelo's supreme masterpiece in all the power of his vision.