Restoration work on The Marriage of the Virgin, one of Raphael's most celebrated paintings, has been completed and the Renaissance masterpiece will be on show in its usual place at the Brera Museum later this week.
Curators at the Milan museum said the painting, which has undergone several renovations throughout the centuries, will be placed on permanent display on Thursday.
During the restoration, visitors had been able to peek at the painting because experts Matteo Ceriana and Emanuela Daffra carried out their hi-tech cleaning procedures behind a transparent structure in one of the museum's rooms.
The masterpiece was painted by Raphael in 1504 for the Franciscan church in the central Italian town of Citta' di Castello where it hung until 1798 when the townspeople were forced to hand it over to one of Napoleon's generals.
In 1803 the painting was donated to a Milan hospital and soon afterwards Napoleonic viceroy Eugene Beauharnais purchased it for the Brera Museum, where it has hung ever since.
Brera curators said the restoration has brought to light Raphael's penchant for brilliant colours.
