The Vatican Museums are proud to present a completely new project for the contemporary art museum: the conversion of the thirty-second room, found immediately before the stairs leading to the Sistine Chapel, into the new  Matisse Room. Among its collection, the Vatican Museums has the unique ensemble of works by Henri Matisse made for the Chappelle du Rosaire in Saint-Paul-de-Vence. These works were donated by the son of the artist, Pierre Matisse, to the Vatican Museums in 1980. The Chappelle du Rosaire is the last and most important work of sacred art made by Matisse between 1950 and 1954 in which he designed the whole chapel: its architecture, paintings, stained glass windows, vestments, crucifix and altar. Presently, the Vatican Museums has in storage: four preparatory cartoons for the choir area, the apse and nave; five silk chasubles designed by Matisse himself for the liturgies of the chapel; two bronze “bozzetti” for the Crucifix and the Cross; and, twelve lithographs for the study of the face of the Virgin. The Vatican Museums also has in its possession various letters sent from Matisse to the Mother Superior of the Dominican Order, Soeur Jacques-Marie, including some sketches of the works that Matisse intended to carry out. Since 1973 and 1980 all of these artworks and letters have been held in storage. Once completed, the room will display all of these elements of the chapel in order to give the visitor a vision of this most unique chapel.

The primary phase of this project took place in 2002 with the restoration of the Matisse Virgin and Child, thanks to generosity of the California Patrons of the Arts in the Vatican Museums.

• Installing air conditioning that avoids damaging the walls of the ancient palace.
• Installation of humidity regulation system.
• New free standing support structures for the works of art to avoid damaging the 15^th century walls.
• Checking of the conditions of the frame and canvas of the Virgin and Child
• Repositioning of the sculpture Madonna by Lucio Fontana