British Museum Stays Up Late for Michelangelo Fans

LONDON (The Associated Press)—The British Museum said today it will stay open until midnight for the first time to meet the demand for access to its exhibition of the works of Italian master Michelangelo.
More than 140,000 people have visited "Michelangelo Drawings: Closer to the Master," since it opened at the end of March.

Now the 247-year-old museum will remain open until midnight every Saturday until the show closes on July 25.

"The exhibition has been such an overwhelming success that we wanted to find a way to let more people to see the show before the end of its run," said director Neil MacGregor.

"This really is a unique opportunity to spend your Saturday night with a master of the Italian Renaissance."

The exhibition is a study of the Renaissance artist's life from his earliest pen drawings to the late, haunting crucifixions.

It reunites material not seen together since the posthumous dispersal of works from Michelangelo's studio in 1564.

The works on display come from collections in the British Museum, the Ashmolean Museum in Oxford and the Teyler Museum in Holland.

The museum's first Michelangelo exhibition in 30 years features 90 drawings by the Renaissance master.

A collection of thumbnail sketches and red chalk studies traces the evolution of the painting of the Sistine Chapel in the Vatican.

Visitors are also shown drawings that Michelangelo used to tutor his students, alongside the pupils' own sketches.

The exhibition took a record 11,000 bookings before it even opened, beating the previous record of 3,670 advance bookings set by an exhibition of Persian art.

 

Copyright 2006 Associated Press