Renaissance master Donatello's famous bronze statue of David is to be restored for the first time ever - under the eyes of visitors to its home at Florence's Bargello museum.
The 'live' restoration of the masterpiece, considered the first major work of Renaissance sculpture, has been made possible thanks to technological innovations such as laser combs invented specially to swipe clean the delicate gold leaf that decorates parts of the work.
The 200,000-euro project will take 18 months, officials said on Monday.
It should be finished by the autumn of 2008.
The restoration follows a major check-up on the state of the work, carried out earlier this year.
The David was subjected to X-rays and a range of other more sophisticated diagnostic tests.
Most experts believe Donatello (1386-1466) sculpted the sensuous work in the 1440s.
It depicts David standing with one foot on Goliath's severed head.
Apart from a hat and a pair of boots, David is naked.
At the time of its creation, it was probably the first free-standing bronze nude since ancient times and it caused a sensation.
The almost feminine physique contrasts with Michelangelo's powerful, masculine depiction of the biblical figure, sculpted between 1500 and 1504.
It is also very different from Donatello's earlier marble version - created around 1412 - in which David is clothed.
Donatello, whose full name was Donato di Niccolo' di Betto Bardi, was the son of a Florentine woolcomber.
As a teenager, he worked in the studio of noted sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti.
Later, he travelled to Rome with the great architect Filippo Brunelleschi to study the monuments of antiquity.
Donatello's dramatic departure from stylised Gothic art is credited with kick-starting the Renaissance.
The Florentine sculptor even anticipated the use of perspective that is often thought a painterly invention - as can be seen in his early bas relief of St George and the Dragon on Florence's Orsanmichele church.
Other major Donatello works include a grim prophet called Habbakuk - or popularly, Zuccone (big head) - on Florence's Duomo and an equestrian warlord in Padua called the Gattamelata.
