Restorer Gianluigi Colalucci, Who Led Sistine Chapel Restoration, Dies at 92

Gianluigi Colalucci, the Italian restorer who directed the controversial and landmark restoration of the Sistine Chapel from 1980 to 1995, died in Rome at age 92. Born in Rome in 1929 into a family of lawyers, he graduated from the Istituto Centrale per il Restauro under Cesare Brandi. His career included work for the cultural heritage superintendencies of Sicily, Crete, and Padua. In 1979 he became chief restorer of the Vatican Museums' Laboratory for Restoration of Paintings and Wooden Materials, and the following year was appointed head of the Sistine Chapel restoration. The project, which Colalucci chronicled in his book "Io e Michelangelo," sparked debate but revealed Michelangelo's original vivid colors—blues, reds, and yellows—hidden beneath centuries of smoke, dirt, and wax. Colalucci also restored works by Raphael, Guido Reni, Lorenzo Lotto, Mantegna, Titian, Caravaggio, Dosso Dossi, Guercino, and Giotto's Scrovegni Chapel frescoes. He taught in Europe, the United States, Australia, and Japan, and received honorary degrees from New York University (1991) and the Polytechnic University of Valencia (1995). Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums, praised him as one of the greatest restorers of the last century, noting that directors Fabrizio Mancinelli and Carlo Pietrangeli undertook the Sistine restoration because of Colalucci's expertise, reviving the tradition of Biagio Biagetti and Bartolomeo Nogara.