Restoring Italy's cathedral statues

In a workshop in the Milan suburbs, sculptor Giovanni Calderino completes his latest project - a battered statue from the top of the Italian city's Gothic cathedral and its gleaming white replacement.

Depicting a bearded man wearing a tunic, the marble statue has adorned one of the Duomo's 135 spires for two centuries.

But decades of harsh weather, pollution and the bombings of the World War II have taken their toll, leaving it discoloured and missing its right hand.

The damage to the statue was spotted during the twice-yearly inspections of the cathedral by the institution that has managed the building for 600 years, the Veneranda Fabbrica del Duomo di Milano.

Too fragile to put back, Calderino has created a perfect replica to take its place - the latest of a steady stream of replacements that maintain the splendour of one of Italy's most famous monuments.