Priceless paintings under threat of damage in Rome museum

Rome’s Museo e Galleria Borghese. Image by Bradley Griffin / CC BY 2.0

According to a former director of Rome’s Museo e Galleria Borghese a priceless painting by Renaissance great Raphael is at ‘risk of collapse’ due to the fact that the gallery’s air conditioning system has been broken for many months. The cash-strapped gallery has appealed repeatedly to the Italian government for funds to repair or replace the system, but to no avail. Some of the country’s most precious paintings are therefore left at the mercy of high spring temperatures, and Raphael’s masterpiece has already warped ‘so much at either end that you can now see not only the inside of the frame, but even the wall behind’. Read more: telegraph.co.uk