Vatican City, Dec 9, 2010 / 11:58 am
Call it the Catholic 20th century in pictures. More than seven million photographs in the Vatican archives — including historic and intimate shots from every pontificate back to Pope Pius XII — are slated for a hi-tech makeover.
The Vatican announced that it has begun the process of translating the photo archives of its daily newspaper L'Osservatore Romano from negatives and prints to digital images.
In a press conference, the head of the Vatican’s photography department, Father Giuseppe Colombara, said the project would be spearheaded by Solegenia Group, an Italian hi-tech company.
The group has its work cut out for it. Many of the negatives and prints have yellowed and degraded over the years. Restoration in many instances will require painstaking work by hand, with experts forced to review individual frames.