Will new director take Vatican Museums far from the madding crowd?

Published: 2007-12-07

VATICAN CITY (CNS) -- Perhaps even more than Michelangelo's frescoes or the statue of Laocoon, the discouragingly long entrance line -- often stretching half a mile -- has become the modern emblem of the Vatican Museums. In peak seasons, visitors can wait more than an hour to get inside the museum complex. And once inside, it's shoulder to shoulder in some of the more popular rooms and hallways. The congestion is the price of success at the Vatican Museums, where attendance has more than tripled over the last 30 years. In 1976, about 1.3 million people came to the museums; last year, the number reached nearly 4.3 million. Economically, this is all good news. Last year, the Vatican Museums took in about $65 million and spent about half that amount, providing Vatican City with its most significant source of income. But for visitors, the experience can be more claustrophobic than cultural. On a recent morning in the Sistine Chapel, where everyone seems to end up, it was more packed than a Roman bus at rush hour. In early December, the Vatican Museums' new director, Antonio Paolucci, indicated that he considers the lines and the crowds a priority problem.

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