As the “home” of some of the greatest works of art in the history of mankind, the chapel of Sistina hats in the Vatican is one of the most popular destinations in Rome and Italy in general. So, if you are one of the 4 million tourists who visit the famous landmark of the Eternal City every year, you will probably know that this place is full of wonderful and biblical murals by Michael Angelos that surprise those who visit it for the first time. .
Banning cameras on it is the first thing its visitors are informed about, a rule that has been in place for many decades. While many assume it is to prevent camera flashes from affecting art, the real reason dates back to the restoration of the chapel works that began in 1980 and took almost 20 years to complete.
When, then, his officials Vatican decided to carry out a complete restoration of the works of Michael Angelos in the chapel, the honor for such an effort prompted them to seek external assistance to finance the project. In the end, the highest bidder was Japan’s Nippon Television Network Corporation, whose bid of $ 3 million (which eventually rose to $ 4.2 million) was higher than any other bidder from Italy and the US.
In exchange for financing the restoration of the chapel works, Nippon TV received the exclusive rights to the Photo and videotaping the restored art, as well as photographs and recordings of the restoration process by photographer Takashi Okamura.
While many initially blamed the deal, the high-resolution photos provided by Nippon provided a super-detailed look behind all the stages of recovery and eventually won over some of its critics. As a result of the agreement, Nippon created many documentaries, art books and other projects with exclusive photos and footage from the restoration of the Sistine Chapel.
According to mentalfoss.com, the ban on photography inside the chapel remains in force despite the weakening of the terms of the Vatican agreement with Nippon. In 1990, The New York Times reported that Nippon’s commercial exclusivity in photographs expired three years after the completion of each stage of the restoration, and it is worth noting that Nippon stated that ban of their photos does not apply to “ordinary tourists” and that in order to avoid the case that a professional photographer “disguised” as a tourist, such a thing was adopted as a general policy.
In any case, given the damage that can be caused by the thousands of flashbacks of tourists on a daily basis in the chapel, it is not surprising that Vatican officials decided to enforce the ban even after the agreement with the Nippon. In the final analysis, the chapel houses some of the most important works of art in history.
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