Michelangelo's David - Active countermeasures to begin?

The January 8 issue of the New Scientist reports that the museum housing Michelangelo's David is considering active countermeasures using a "wall of air" to prevent fouling of the iconic statue.

Originally placed outdoors on its completion in 1504, it became covered with dirt and grime over the centuries, only being moved inside Florence's Galleria dell'Accademia in 1873.

After a fanatically painstaking cleaning completed in May of last year, the masterwork has already begun to accumulate dust brought in from the outside by visitors.

The New Scientist story follows.

Michelangelo's David to enjoy an air defence system

Dust is collecting on David's marble muscles just months after the statue was given a controversial clean.

But rather than risk washing Michelangelo's delicate masterpiece with water again, the museum that houses the 500-year-old sculpture may bathe it with air.

The millions of people who visit the Accademia gallery in Florence, Italy, each year carry dirt and grime from the city's streets into the museum's halls.

This wafts around inside, settling on the statues. Chemicals in the dust could damage the marble from which David is carved.

Since David's last spruce-up, completed in May 2004, new grime has been particularly obvious on his freshly buffed curves.

"It was very clean, so this new deposition was very evident," says Livio de Santoli of La Sapienza University in Rome, an expert in air-conditioning systems for art galleries and museums.

He has designed an air-conditioning unit to be installed beneath the base of the statue that would keep the dust at bay by gently blowing filtered air over David's nude form.

Before it can be deployed in the gallery, however, de Santoli says he will need to test the system on a replica statue.

More detail here, from the Discovery channel.