€2 to illuminate a Caravaggio masterpiece is a small price to pay | Letter

The controversy over whether Notre Dame should charge visitors an entrance fee (Row erupts over plan to charge €5 to enter fire-hit Notre Dame, 26 October) brought to mind a trip to Italy earlier this year. Caravaggio’s painting The Burial of Saint Lucy has been recently relocated to the church for which it was originally intended: the Basilica di Santa Lucia al Sepolcro in Syracuse, Sicily. It is now installed on a wall behind the altar and has become a major tourist attraction, especially as there is no charge for admission to the splendid building.

However, when my wife and I visited, we were disappointed to find the painting in darkness and we couldn’t see a thing. Fortunately, we quickly realised that visitors were required to insert a €2 coin into a slot machine in order to provide illumination for a few minutes. With a steady stream of visitors coughing up their euros on a regular basis, Caravaggio’s masterpiece does not remain in the shadows for very long.

This initiative struck us as a novel way to raise much-needed funds and is certainly preferable to paying an entrance fee to the church itself.
Mike Pender
Cardiff