- Russia, China step up cybercriminal recruitment, warns Microsoft
- Restored 'Apollo Belvedere' marble back on show in the Vatican
- Boeing to raise up to $25 bn as strike weighs on finances
- Oil prices fall on easing Middle East fears
- Boeing announces intention to raise up to $25 bn
- Ferguson to leave Man Utd ambassador role as club cuts costs
- Oil prices tumble on easing Middle East fears
- Oil prices hit by easing Middle East fears, most Asian markets rise
- Hopes pinned on peace across Taiwan Strait after drills
- Belgian pathologist and literary star gives 'voice to the dead'
- East Timor fights new battles 25 years after independence vote
- Oil prices drop on easing fears over Middle East, most markets rise
- Reoxygenating oceans: startups lead the way in Baltic Sea
- King Charles III heads to Australia and Commonwealth meeting
- Wall Street stocks hit fresh records as oil prices slide
- Strike-hit Boeing leaves experts puzzled by strategy
- NASA launches probe to study if life possible on icy Jupiter moon
- EVs seek to regain sales momentum at Paris Motor Show
- NASA probe Europa Clipper lifts off for Jupiter's icy moon
- 'Unsustainable' housing crisis bedevils Spain's socialist govt
- Stocks shrug off China disappointment but oil slides
- Stocks diverge, oil retreats as China disappoints markets
- Trio wins economics Nobel for work on wealth inequality
- Ex-Stasi officer jailed over 1974 Berlin border killing
- Shanghai stocks gain after stimulus briefing as markets rally
- Shanghai stocks gain after stimulus briefing as Asian markets rally
- Nearly 90, but opera legend Kabaivanska is still calling tune
- With inflation down, ECB eyes faster tempo of rate cuts
- Is life possible on a Jupiter moon? NASA goes to investigate
- Ex-Stasi officer faces verdict over 1974 Berlin border killing
- Role of government, poverty research tipped for economics Nobel
- In milestone, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- In a first, SpaceX 'catches' megarocket booster after test flight
- Bangladeshi Hindus shrug off attack worries to celebrate festival
- Ubisoft fears assassin's hit over falling sales
- Vietnam, China hold talks on calming South China Sea tensions
- SpaceX will try to 'catch' giant Starship rocket shortly before landing
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgery: reports
- Japan's former empress Michiko discharged after surgey: reports
- 'Little Gregory' murder haunts France 40 years on
- Tariffs, tax cuts, energy: What is in Trump's economic plan?
- Amazon wants to be everything to everyone
- Jewish school in Canada hit by gunfire for second time
- With medical report Harris seeks to play health card against Trump
- China-EU EV tariff talks in Brussels end with 'major differences': Beijing
- Buried Nazi past haunts Athens on liberation anniversary
- Harris to release medical report confirming fitness for presidency: campaign
- Nobel prize a timely reminder, Hiroshima locals say
- China offers $325 bn in fiscal stimulus for ailing economy
- Small Quebec company dominates one part of NHL hockey: jerseys
RBGPF | 1.67% | 60.5 | $ | |
CMSD | 0.62% | 25.135 | $ | |
CMSC | 0.52% | 24.82 | $ | |
AZN | -0.26% | 77.9 | $ | |
RELX | 1.8% | 48.25 | $ | |
NGG | 0.4% | 67.16 | $ | |
RIO | -1.48% | 66.715 | $ | |
GSK | -0.25% | 39.034 | $ | |
RYCEF | 0.28% | 7.05 | $ | |
BCC | 0.95% | 144.35 | $ | |
SCS | 0.92% | 13.1 | $ | |
JRI | -0.47% | 13.025 | $ | |
BCE | 2.79% | 33.495 | $ | |
BP | -3.86% | 30.8 | $ | |
BTI | -0.04% | 35.435 | $ | |
VOD | -0.26% | 9.655 | $ |
Restored 'Apollo Belvedere' marble back on show in the Vatican
The Vatican Museums on Tuesday unveiled the restoration of the celebrated second-century "Apollo Belvedere" sculpture following five years of work.
Once considered to epitomise classical Western ideals of beauty, the 2.24-metre-high (seven-feet-tall) marble statue shows the Greek god of medicine and poetry in motion, his left arm having just let fly an arrow from his bow.
Its around 260,000-euro ($280,000) restoration aimed to fix serious structural defects detected late in 2019, the restorers said.
Those notably included fragilities in the legs and an overall lack of balance in the structure, they told a press conference.
Thanks to the introduction of a carbon-fibre rod fixed to the back of the base, the "Apollo Belvedere" was successfully stabilised and presented to public applause at the Vatican's Pio-Clementine Museum.
The most difficult thing was "not to touch anything on the sculpture" and avoid having to move and dismantle it, the restoration workshop's head Guy Devreux told AFP.
"We found this new system, which is a dynamic structural system based on the use of carbon fibre... and which, used in the right way, can give extraordinary results," he added.
For the Vatican Museums' director Barbara Jatta, "the main challenge was to have the courage to close access to such an important icon for our museums".
Discovered in 1489 among the ruins of an ancient Roman house, the "Apollo Belvedere" was brought to the Vatican by Pope Julius II.
Besides the carbon-fibre rod, the restorers also replaced the statue's left hand with a cast taken from a fragment of a plaster copy of the original Greek statue made in Roman times.
The "Apollo Belvedere" is in fact considered to be a marble copy of a bronze from around 330 BC attributed to Leochares, one of the foremost sculptors of his time.
A.Levy--CPN