Vatican Museums unveil restored Apollo Belvedere

The Vatican Museums on Tuesday unveiled the newly restored Apollo Belvedere, a celebrated marble sculpture of the Greek god Apollo dating from the second century.

The two-metre high statue underwent a delicate restoration and cleaning process, after small fractures were noticed in its legs in 2019, with a new carbon fibre pole fixed to the back of its plinth to make it more stable, the Vatican said in a statement.

The €260,000 restoration, funded with the help of the Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums, was coordinated by the Vatican’s department of Greek and Roman Antiquities.

The marble masterpiece, believed to be a Roman copy of an original Greek bronze statue, portrays Apollo having just shot an arrow with his bow.

The ancient statue was discovered in 1489 on Rome’s Viminal Hill and was brought to the Vatican two decades later by Pope Julius II where it became a treasured centrepiece of the papal collection.

The 18th-century German art historian and archaeologist Johan Joachim Winckelmann hailed the Apollo as “the highest ideal of art among the ancient works that have been preserved to us so far.”

The return of the Apollo Belvedere comes as the Vatican prepares to unveil the restored gilded bronze canopy that towers over the high altar of St Peter’s Basilica on 27 October.