Michelangelo's David gets spa treatment in Florence

Every two months, Michelangelo's masterpiece completed in 1504 undergoes a careful cleaning at its home in Florence's Accademia Gallery, where it has resided for over 150 years. "It's not pretty and it's not worthy of the work of art that we preserve in this museum," Hollberg said. David's bi-monthly cleaning, then, is "a form of respect, a form of dignity that we want to give to every work." It stayed in the piazza until 1873 when it was moved to its current location, with the museum literally built around it. Other masterpieces of the museum, Michelangelo's Slaves -- which were designed for the tomb of Pope Julius II but never completed -- arrived later in 1939.