Plans for a high-speed railway to be built this summer threaten the statue’s integrity. A tunnel for the rail is to be dug 2,000 ft. away from the Accidemia Gallery in Florence and the vibrations from the passing trains are predicted to be strong enough to make David fall.
David appears manly and strong, but apparently he lacks one thing. Strong ankles. Due to tiny cracks mostly in the statues' ankles, where the weight is supported, David is not as strong as he looks.
Fernando De Simone, an expert in underground engineering called on the Florentine authorities to move the 17-foot-tall statue to a specially-built museum that is designed to withstand tremors from earthquakes.
Vittorio Sgarbi, a prominent Italian art critic, has called for the entire project to be stopped completely. “Our heritage should come before everything else. The excavation work should not go ahead,” he said.
The new rail’s purpose is to improve travel connections between Florence, Milan, and Rome.
When history meets modernity great caution must be taken to preserve our past while making way for our future.
Read the entire Telegraph article here.
Learn more about David here.