Italy's Culture Minister Lorenzo Ornaghi unveiled a timetable on Tuesday for an extensive restoration of the Colosseum. In Rome, standing beside mayor Gianni Alemanno and fashion mogul Diego Della Valle, a principal patron of the project, Ornaghi described the centuries of admiration the ancient structure has garnered for Italy's capital when justifying the need for an intervention. “This is not only in the interests of Rome and Italy,” Ornaghi told the Telegraph, “but this is a symbol of how Rome presents itself to the world.”

The restoration, according to Borsa Italiana, will run from early December 2012 to approximately June 2015. In separate phases, workers will restore the Colosseum's internal passageways and underground cells, add support to the stadium's façades and main atria, replace iron pins from the exterior that have been lost or dug out, and build a tourist center. Ornaghi promises that the structure will remain open for the entirety of the project, all while insisting that it is absolutely necessary. Recently supporters of the plan have often pointed out an eerie recession of 40 centimeters (16 inches) between the northern and southern portions of the monument, a tilt that has invited comparisons to the leaning Tower of Pisa.

Like any major architectural restoration in Italy, this project has brought a few contrarians out of the woodwork. Among these is Vittorio Sgarbi, a famously litigious art critic and former Undersecretary of Cultural Affairs. Speaking to the Italian news site IlSussidiario.net, Sgarbi contends that the scientific community had been aware of the recession for "quite some time," saying that the tilt is caused by a layer of cement, installed beneath the structure in the early-19th century, "so that the Colosseum would be brought into balance.” 

“The diameter of the Colosseum is at least 150 meters, and nothing changes if you shift a few centimeters," Sgarbi told Il Sussidario. “The Colosseum is not in fact in danger for now, nor is the Tower of Pisa.”