One of Michelangelos most fragile sculptures returns to public display after decades in storage and three years of meticulous restoration. The River God goes on display on October 19th as the centerpiece of a newly-built gallery at the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno in Florence, the oldest art academy in Europe which has owned the piece since the 16th century.Created between 1526 and 1527, the clay model was a life-sized study for what would have been a marble river god at the foot of the tomb of Lorenzo de Medici, Duke of Urbino, in the Church of San Lorenzo. Michelangelo was inspired by the river deity sculptures of antiquity to recreate a reclining male torso with bent legs. He crafted it of unfired clay mixed with casein, plant and animal fibers on a core of iron wire. It has no head, arms or legs below the knee, because it was meant to be a reference model for his clients approval before the expensive marble was acquired to make the finished piece. He never got to that stage, so this model is the only surviving example of Michelangelos vision.It was donated to the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno by the sculptor Bartolomeo Ammannati in 1583. Since 1965, the work has been housed in the Casa Buonarroti. Three years ago, a complex process of restoration began, overseen by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure and funded by the non-profit Friends of Florence.The history of the River God is marked by centuries of attention and conservation interventions. Donated by Ammannati for educational purposes, over time it was subjected to more or less invasive restorations, such as the insertion of metal elements in the 18th century. Archival documents attest to the use of wooden and chestnut structures to facilitate its movement without compromising its integrity. After periods of oblivion, the work was rediscovered in 1906 in the Plaster Room of the Academy of Fine Arts and transferred to the Accademia Gallery for storage. In 1964 it was deposited at the Casa Buonarroti to ensure better conservation conditions, at the initiative of director Charles de Tolnay. In the 1980s restorer Guglielmo Galli reported serious structural problems, including cracking and deformation, aggravated by the presence of ancient bronzing that altered its color and legibility.The complex technical difficulties of the restoration led to its postponement for a long time. The turning point came in 2015, when a loan request for the exhibition I Medici e le Arti a Firenze nel secondo Cinquecento at PalazzoStrozzi made a radical operation necessary. The restoration, carried out by Rosanna Moradei of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure with the support of Friends of Florence and under the direction of Giorgio Bonsanti and Laura Speranza, took place between 2015 and 2017. After an anti-wormwood treatment, work was done on the internal structure and surfaces with targeted consolidations. The bronzing was removed and the surface freed thanks to microaspirations and solvent-gel, restoring the works original materiality without erasing the traces of time and the modifications it had undergone. After the exhibition at Palazzo Strozzi, the model was transferred to the venue on Via Orsanmichele, where it remained protected until the completion of the new hall.