<P> When the restoration of the Sistine Chapel was announced, it sparked a barrage of queries and objections from art historians around the world . One of the most vocal of these critics was James Beck, of ArtWatch International, who issued repeated warnings about the possibility of damage to Michelangelo's work from over-strenuous restoration . An argument that was used repeatedly was that all the previous interventions had caused damage of one sort or another . Any restoration, as opposed to conservation, puts an artwork at risk . Conservation, on the other hand, aids in the preservation of the work in its present state and in prevention of further deterioration . Beck has written about his concerns in Art Restoration, the Culture, the Business and the Scandal . </P> <P> In the rhetoric of this conversation, (the conservators) say that the previous restoration was no good--now we're going to make a really good one . It's like having a facelift . How many times can people go through one without their poor faces looking like an orange peel? </P> <P> While James Beck became "embroiled in a public debate" with Gianluigi Colalucci, Ronald Feldman, a New York art dealer, started a petition supported by 15 well - known artists including Robert Motherwell, George Segal, Robert Rauschenberg, Christo and Andy Warhol asking Pope John Paul II to call a halt to the procedure and also the restoration of Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper . </P> <P> An undertaking of the restoration team was that everything would be handled in a transparent fashion, that reporters, art historians and others with a bona fide interest should have ready access to information and to view the work . However, a single company, Nippon Television Network Corporation, had sole photography rights . Michael Kimmelman, chief art critic of The New York Times, wrote, in 1991, that the criticism of the restoration of the ceiling and lunettes was in part fuelled by the Nippon Television Network's reluctance to make public those photographs that they had taken by exclusive right, which had recorded every stage of the process and which were the only solid evidence that the work was being done appropriately . </P>

When the restoration of the sistine chapel ceiling was completed in 1989