The restoration of Michelangelo's unfinished second of three Pietàs has been completed in Florence's Museo dell'Opera del Duomo and has exploded the myth that he took a hammer to it out of anger at its lack of perfection, instead saying the Renaissance genius abandoned it due to flaws in the marble.

The great painter and sculptor completed the work, also known as The Deposition or the Bandini Pietà, between 1547 and 1555, 50 years after his first Pietà which is in St Peter's, his first true masterpiece. He intended it for his tomb.