High above the rooftops in the heart of Rome, restorers on Thursday used laser beams to clean a marble column in the piazza outside the prime minister’s office, removing layers of dust and grime that had covered the Roman monument for decades.
The 47-meter (154-foot) tall column, built between A.D. 180 and 193, features a relief that spirals upward and recounts the battles of one of Rome’s best-known emperors, Marcus Aurelius. During the column’s last restoration, in the 1980s, restorers used tiny brushes to remove the dirt.
