Restoring Milan's Duomo, One Statue At A Time

But decades of harsh weather, pollution and the bombings of the Second World War have taken their toll on the Duomo's statues (Credit: AFP)

In a workshop in the Milan suburbs, sculptor Giovanni Calderino completes his latest project -- a battered statue from the top of the Italian city's gothic cathedral, and its gleaming white replacement.

Depicting a bearded man wearing a tunic, the marble statue has adorned one of the Duomo's 135 spires for two centuries.