The article below from NYTimes.com

Michelangelo’s David Gets Spruced Up for His 500th Birthday

May 25, 2004

 By ALAN RIDING

FLORENCE, Italy, May 24 - As a measure of this city's

nervousness about restoration of its Renaissance

masterpieces, Michelangelo's "David" was unveiled on Monday

after eight months of cleaning to proud claims that this

14-foot-high marble statue looked little different. "An

invisible cleaning," Antonio Paolucci, the superintendent

of Florentine art, said reassuringly, "like washing the

face of a child."

For anyone familiar with "David," though, this monumental

sculpture did look different, definitely cleaner and

generally more presentable in preparation for celebrations

marking the 500th anniversary of its placement in the

Piazza della Signoria in September 1504. Mr. Paolucci's

caution, however, evidently reflected a desire not to

reawaken the controversy that preceded this $500,000

restoration.

One year ago Agnese Parronchi, the restorer hired to clean

the statue where it now stands in the Galleria

dell'Accademia, resigned to protest the so-called wet

cleaning method imposed on her by Florentine experts. Her

warning of damage to the work were soon echoed by James H.

Beck, a Columbia University art historian and president of

ArtWatch International, who organized a petition signed by

55 international art historians calling for further study

before cleaning.

In July, however, Mr. Paolucci gave the go-ahead for the

restoration. And in September a new restorer, Cinzia

Parnigoni, began using the approved wet method by applying

distilled water through compresses of cellulose pulp on top

of Japanese paper. In some sections where wax dating back

two centuries had accumulated, Ms. Parnigoni also used

white spirits to remove the wax.

"I would call the result `less gray,' " Ms. Parnigoni said.

"But I hope it is not too white."

Mr. Beck, who visited the Accademia last month to observe

the cleaning, said he still felt the restoration

unnecessary. "But this is not a drastic cleaning," he said

in a telephone interview from New York, "which was a

victory for our side because if we had not spoken out, they

would have cleaned it much more." He said that nonetheless,

by using white spirits, the museum had broken its pledge

not to employ solvents.

Franca Falleti, director of the Accademia, said the white

spirits were used only to dissolve wax and at no point

touched the marble. Unlike Mr. Paolucci, however, who spoke

repeatedly of "invisible cleaning," Ms. Falleti was eager

to show, with before and after photographs, that many

stains and blotches had been removed. Some, though, were

too ingrained to be washed away with distilled water and

have been left.

The marks on "David" recount much of the statue's life

story, starting with an 18-foot-high marble bloc from

Carrara that had been exposed to the elements for 40 years

before Michelangelo began transforming it. "It is very poor

quality marble," Ms. Parnigoni said after working inches

from its surface for months on end. Even Michelangelo had

to spend four months polishing the marble before it was

presented in public in 1504.

In 1527, while standing in the Piazza della Signoria, the

sculpture lost the lower half of its left arm during a

riot. The arm was then reattached with a metal bar and

covered with a white mixture of lime and sand. Since this

strip has aged and colored in a different way from the rest

of the marble, Ms. Parnigoni removed the original sealing

matter and replaced it with fresh plaster. To her credit,

the connecting point is barely visible.

The restoration history of "David" has also left its marks.

In 1810 the statue was covered in wax for protection; in

1843 this wax along with Michelangelo's original patina was

disastrously removed with hydrochloric acid. A wiser form

of conservation took place in 1873, when the statue was

brought indoors to the Accademia. But in 1991 an unbalanced

Italian artist smashed a toe on its left foot with a

hammer, and this too had to be restored.

Mr. Paolluci and his team say that what Accademia documents

describe as restoration involves only conservation,

although the work done here seems to lie somewhere between

the two. In some areas the once dull marble has recovered

its shine, with the front of the figure's torso again

catching light and shadow. Some vertical stains, perhaps

remnants of streams of rainwater, have also been removed.

Scientists also have carried out detailed studies of the

environment in which "David" now lives. They concluded, for

instance, that both the temperature and gaseous pollutants

monitored around the statue were at acceptable levels. But

they also noted that larger dust particles introduced by

some two million visitors per year quickly soiled the

marble "and threaten to cancel out the results obtained

with the newly completed cleaning."

Ms. Parnigoni said that to prevent a dust buildup she

planned to clean the statue with a hand-held vacuum cleaner

every six weeks. Temperatures around "David" will continue

to be monitored, and ultraviolet and other photographic

techniques will be used to identify the accumulation of

gypsum and other harmful substances on the marble surface.

Perhaps most alarming, however, is the fresh recognition by

Florentine experts that "David" would not be safe in case

of a major earthquake. In documents provided to the press

today, the experts are quoted as saying, "Given the

importance of the work, we consider it necessary to take

even this extreme hypothesis into consideration." Since

Florence lies in an earthquake zone, the hypothesis is not

extreme.

The principal message accompanying Monday's unveiling,

however, was that all was well with "David." "I wonder if

people can see the difference?" asked Willem Dreesmann,

president of a Dutch foundation, Ars Longa Stichting, which

financed the studies and restoration along with the

American-based Friends of Florence. "All kinds of stains

have been removed," he said, "but you can only see this at

close quarters."

Mr. Paolucci was more eager to minimize what has been done

here. "A restoration that doesn't look like a restoration

is always the best kind," he said. " `David' is the same as

ever. For journalists this is a letdown because there is no

controversy."

Mr. Beck, though, was not about to give up. "They just sort

of tidied it up," he said, "and created a spectacle to get

more visitors and sell more products."

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/05/25/arts/design/25DAVI.html?ex=1086513638&ei=1&en=97164d183dce3c5e