The director of the Vatican Museums, Barbara Jatta: "I will never rent out the Sistine Chapel."

Art historian Barbara Jatta, director of the Vatican Museums, granted a lengthy interview to the Spanish daily El País, conducted by journalist Anatxu Zabalbeascoa and aimed at illustrating the director’s idea of museums and her management of the Vatican Museums. Barbara Jatta is the first woman to direct the important complex (one of the ten most visited museums in the world), and she decided to do so with one fundamental concept in mind: respect for the place.

The first question is, in fact, about the Sistine Chapel, which is first and foremost “a place of worship,” which cannot be visited during celebrations. However, a place that has experienced recent success: “until the late 1980s, people came to see the classical antiquities and the Raphael Rooms. At that time, the Sistine Chapel was dark, and you could barely see Michelangelo’s frescoes. After a restoration that lasted a decade or so, the colors appeared, a riot of color that uncovered the painters living with him in the Chapel, from Botticelli to Pinturicchio to Ghirlandaio. I was working in the Library and I remember the impression I had: it was as if a curtain had risen.”

Then there is a firm point: the Sistine Chapel is not for rent. “Absolutely,” says Jatta. Zabalbeascoa refers to the fact that in 2014, before Barbara Jatta’s directorship, it was granted to Porsche, which organized a classical music concert there. For Jatta it is simply a thing of the past: “sometimes it happens that we organize dinners for our great patrons, but during my leadership they were reduced by a lot. As far as I am concerned, these are the pope’s museums, a place of art and faith for the whole world. I am not against such events, but there is a way and a way to organize them, and some decisions demand moderation.”

The interview touches on other issues, such as the relationship between museum collections and faith. A relationship that is “very strong, the result of centuries of mission: to bring forward the historical and artistic knowledge of the faith. These are the works of the pope, and this characteristic makes the collection of the Vatican Museums a very peculiar collection in comparison with any other great museum in the world, be it the Hermitage, the Louvre or the Prado.” The Louvre, for example, "is an expression of the grandeur of France, the Prado shows the collections of the Spanish royalty,“ and the Vatican Museums stand out because they ”exhibit a message of faith."

Barbara Jatta also expounds her thoughts on mass tourism, which inevitably spills over to the Vatican Museums as well: “it is true that it entails inconvenience. But it allows everyone to get to know. My children travel around Europe on 30-euro flights. Today it is possible to know what was previously reserved for very few. Sharing is our message. And we want to share beauty with many people.”

The director, after talking about her personal life, also lists the priorities that guide her management of the museum: “I don’t want visitors to parade around like sheep, there are other ways to visit our museums. I would like people to get to know all seven kilometers of them. That’s why we came up with the Winckelmann third centenary exhibition: I am more convinced of the dialogue between pieces from the collection with works from other institutions, rather than media exhibitions.”

Barbara Jatta then also touches on the issue of decolonization: “We have not made restitutions. But we try to be more fair to pieces that come from other populations. We do it to build bridges.” Lastly, a passage on communication: “we have improved the website so that people inform themselves before coming to visit the museums. Personalized preparation based on one’s interests is the future. And information technology is the key: we sell 85 percent of tickets online. If you want to come, you book and prepare. If you pay more, you wait less. Usually, those who wait [in line, ed.] are young people like my children: they don’t have money, but they have time. There are no other museums in Italy with so much information online. Although, of course, we are not Italian.”

Pictured: Barbara Jatta

The director of the Vatican Museums, Barbara Jatta: "I will never rent out the Sistine Chapel."

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