Officials consider air conditioning David

Italian museum officials are deciding whether to install a stream of gushing air around Michelangelo’s David to protect the Renaissance masterpiece from dust.

A cleaning of the 500-year-old statue was completed in May, stripping away decades of greyish grime. But officials soon saw that the glowing marble was constantly subjected to dirt from visitors’ shoes and clothes, the ANSA news agency said.

Now, museum officials in Florence are studying ways to keep David clean without putting him behind glass, the report said.

One idea is a continuous gust of air to “keep away the atmospheric particles that get deposited on the marble, building up and provoking corrosive and polluting effects”, Antonio Paolucci, in charge of museums in Florence, was quoted as saying.

Another idea is to make visitors walk across special carpets and pass through an aerated corridor to blow dust off their clothes, ANSA said.

A separate proposal is to alter the gallery’s air vents to make sure David and other major statues aren’t subjected to polluting gusts from the air conditioner.