With the busy summer season in full swing, popular European museums are examining new methods of crowd control in an effort to curb the ever-growing hustle and bustle that could cause damage to both visitors and the art itself. Some museums such as the Louvre and the Prado in Madrid have pursued softer methods like timed tickets and extended hours. Others such as the Vatican Museums and the Uffizi in Florence have taken a harder line. Within the next year the delicate frescoes of the Sistine Chapel will be protected by a crowd-limiting climate control system while the Uffizi has already established a cap of 980 visitors at a time. (more…)

The Vatican Museum has announced that tourists who visit the Sistine Chapel must be suction-cleaned and chilled before entering. The five million tourists who visit the Sistine Chapel yearly are causing Michelangelo’s frescoes to degrade via the introduction of sweat, dust, skin flakes and hair, in addition to high temperatures from 20,000 tourists daily. “We will cover the 100 meters before the entrance with a carpet that cleans shoes; we will install suction vents on the sides to suck dust from clothes and we will lower temperatures to reduce the heat and humidity of bodies,” said the director of the Museums, “Dust, temperature, humidity and carbon dioxide are the great enemies of the paintings.”
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