Sistine Chapel’s ‘The Last Judgment’ Faces Restoration Amid Vatican’s Visitor Overload

Michelangelo’s monumental fresco, The Last Judgment, towering over the altar in the Sistine Chapel, now faces a reckoning—not from art critics, but from an invisible enemy: relentless pollution caused by millions of visitors. The Vatican announced a three-month cleaning effort to remove decades of microparticle buildup clouding the masterpiece, marking its first major restoration since 1994. When Preservation Clashes with Popularity: Can America Learn from This? This restoration is more than an artistic concern; it reveals the broader consequences of unchecked public access to irreplaceable cultural heritage. More than six million people annually navigate the Vatican Museums, with many converging...