A “Secret Michelangelo Room” is Opening in Florence. Can it Tell Us Anything New?

| Tue, 11/14/2023 - 04:45

The secret room beneath the New Sacristy at San Lorenzo

The secret room beneath the New Sacristy at San Lorenzo / Photo: Francesco Fantani for Musei del Bargello

It was the discovery of a lifetime. In 1975, Paolo dal Poggetto, director of the Medici Chapels of San Lorenzo in Florence, was looking for a way to funnel the increasing numbers of visitors in a one-way direction to avoid a bottleneck inside the Renaissance sacristy designed by Michelangelo. One custodian, an old-timer, remembered an underground room whose trap-door access was obscured by an ancient storage cabinet. The dark space was neglected and once stored coal, but perhaps

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