After five years of restoration, Michelangelo's nearly 500-year-old sculpture of Moses is looking as good as new.

Restorers in the Italian capital have been quietly working away on the majestic sculpture of a seated Moses since 1998, careful to steer clear of a heated debate over the best way to clean the sculptor's David nude in Florence.

"The Moses encapsulates Michelangelo's real courage and passion. He considered it his most important work," chief restorer Antonio Forcellino told Reuters on Wednesday.

"Our aim was to rediscover the real work of Michelangelo, first mutilated by the critics and then the builders... When we arrived it was filthy, but little by little we have rubbed away the stains," he said.

The restoration of the Moses + the biblical Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of Egypt + has just finished and an opening ceremony is scheduled for January.

Debate continues in the art world as to whether such sculptures should be restored at all.

James Beck, an art historian at Columbia University, says restoration means imposing the present on art and changing it forever.

Beck railed against the cleaning of the David nude, seen by many as the symbol of Italy's rich artistic heritage, saying cleaning it would alter its visage.

But Forcellino brushed off the David debate as a simple battle between art experts keen to grab the limelight.

"The actual cleaning process isn't rocket science. The success or failure of restoration isn't in the products used, it's in the skill of the restorer," he said.

Close

Today's Top News		Top Lifestyle News
+Oil industry: Pricing, entry to be loosened ( 2003-11-06) +Falling grain output raises concern ( 2003-11-06) +India, China to hold naval drill on Nov 14 ( 2003-11-06) +Sunnier city life for rural children ( 2003-11-06) +Oil industry: Pricing, entry to be loosened ( 2003-11-06)		+Michelangelo's sculpture of Moses shines again ( 2003-11-06) +Thanks to 'Bad Boy' rapper Eminem ( 2003-11-06) +Striptease lessons offered free for Paris women ( 2003-11-06) +Disney's "Finding Nemo" set new record in video sales ( 2003-11-06) +Microsoft puts $500,000 on virus writers' heads ( 2003-11-06)