Don’t fall for a fake: the Chauvet cave art replica is nonsense

The French government has spent millions replicating a cave of 35,000-year-old art masterpieces. But you wouldn’t pay to see a Rembrandt copy – why is ancient art treated so callously?

Picture this. Visitors to the Vatican arrive in St Peter’s Square and are shepherded into a modern reception centre cleverly hidden under Bernini’s colonnades. After looking at a display on Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel frescoes, they are filtered into a full-scale replica, with a ceiling that is a giant photograph of the famous artwork.

Perhaps one day this may come about, as the Vatican worries about preserving its artistic treasures. But I suspect no one would be very happy to visit a substitute Sistine Chapel. What would be the point?

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