Jason Momoa Apology: Why Is Photography Banned Inside Sistine Chapel

Jason Momoa landed himself in a sticky situation when he shared pictures from the Sistine Chapel on Instagram. Normally, tourist attractions allow sharing of pictures, however, there are certain places that strictly prohibit people from taking photographs. Sistine Chapel happens to fall into the latter category.

The world-renowned chapel in Vatican City is visited by millions of tourists around the year. The famous paintings made on the ceiling of the chapel are one of the prime attractions of the place. The room is filled with Michelangelo’s beautiful, biblical frescos that tend to come as a surprise to first-time guests.

It is here that Momoa posed with crew members of his upcoming Fast & Furious franchise film Fast X. Soon after sharing the pictures, Momoa realised his blunder and apologised. The 42-year-old actor shared a video on Instagram, where he said, “If you ever felt that I disrespected your culture, that wasn’t my intention.”

The Aquaman star also added that people wanted to take pictures with him there and he obliged, but he was not trying to be disrespectful.

So if you are planning on visiting the Sistine Chapel, you must know that your experience will be peppered with terse shouts of “No photo! No video!” from security guards.

The prohibition against photography or videography has been in place for several decades. It is assumed that the no-photography rule is in place to prevent the flashing of cameras from affecting the renaissance art, but reports claimed that the real reason dates back to the restoration of the chapel’s art that began in 1980 and took nearly two decades to complete.

The contract for restoration was won by Japan’s Nippon Television Network Corporation who offered $4.2 million for the mammoth task. In return, the company demanded exclusive photography rights for Sistine Chapel. Although Nippon’s copyright over Sistine Chapel’s art expired in 1998, the ban did not apply to ordinary tourists. The authorities that did not want to take any chance and made the ban an across-the-board policy.