Michelangelo's statue restoration reveals flaws

Michelangelo had hoped this would be by his tomb

The unfinished sculpture has now been restored after 470 years

by experts at Florence’s Opera del Duomo Museum

Michelangelo worked on ‘Bandini Pieta’ between 1547-1555

but abandoned it because the marble was flawed

(SOUNDBITE) (Italian) DIRECTOR OF RESTORATION PROJECT, BEATRICE AGOSTINI, SAYING:

"It's a Pieta that has suffered and is very intimate. There is definitely a strong feeling of Michelangelo because it was made for his tomb. So yes, it is a really personal statue and in fact, among other things, there's a self-portrait of Michelangelo in the figure of Nicodemus.''

Michelangelo was in his seventies when he started the work

(SOUNDBITE) (Italian) DIRECTOR OF RESTORATION PROJECT, BEATRICE AGOSTINI, SAYING:

"The Pieta had all the signs of fractures and parts that had previously fallen off as well as parts that had been reassembled by (Michelangelo's friend Tibertio) Calcagni. However, it is quite unlikely that Michelangelo tried to destroy the statue because no trace or signs of this have been found. Instead, we have seen that the marble block has a series of small cracks and the famous imperfections inside the marble, including a big lesion that went right through the entirety of the piece that fell off.”