AWARD BESTOWED ON RESTORATION LABS IN VATICAN MUSEUMS

VATICAN CITY, DEC 2, 2003 (VIS) - The International Biennial of Modern Art, which will be celebrated in Florence, Italy, will present the 'Lawrence the Great' Award to the Restoration Laboratories of the Vatican Museums for their 'precious and noteworthy commitment in the field of art with the continual restoration of the greatest patrimony of humanity.'

The biennial, which will celebrate its fourth edition on December 6-14 in Florence, was presented today during a press conference in the Vatican Museums. This year 890 artists from 70 nations will participate. The director of the exhibition is John T. Spike, art critic and historian. Among the activities that will take place throughout the conference is a seminar given by David Hockney on December 9 on the optical instruments of renaissance artists.

With respect to the Vatican Museums, the main restoration projects completed throughout the years on the 'immense artistic patrimony entrusted to them' will be documented, from objects of ancient Mediterranean civilizations, to Greco-Roman sculpture, from silver and ivory of late antiquity, ' to terracotta works by Bernini.' One of the most significant pieces in the exhibition is the plaster cast of the 'Piet…' by Michelangelo, made thirty years before the statue was defaced, which made it possible to reconstruct the Virgin's disfigured face.
Keys: ;BIENNIAL MODERN ART;...;VATICAN MUSEUMS ;VIS;20031202;Word: 230;