Caravaggio's Resurrection of Lazarus unveiled after restoration They then used a solvent gel and wads of cotton wool to remove a layer of old varnish and clean the surface of the oil painting, in an operation that cost 100,000 euros. They had to repair the work of several previous heavy-handed restoration efforts, the first in 1670 and the last in 1951. The painting will be displayed in the Palazzo Braschi museum in Rome from today/Saturday until July 15, after which it will be transferred to the Regional Museum of Messina. The oil-on-canvas work was commissioned by a wealthy Genoese merchant, Giovan Battista de' Lazzari, and displays Caravaggio's mastery of the "chiaroscuro" technique - the contrasting of large areas of inky darkness with beams of light to accentuate the drama of the scene. The painting was created in "the last and most agitated and tormented part of his life," the organisers of the exhibition in Rome said. Daila Radeglia, of the Higher Institute for Conservation and Restoration, said it was "one of the reference points of Caravaggio's artistic journey." The artist, whose full name was Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, died just a year later, most probably in Porto Ercole on the coast of Tuscany. His death, at the age of 36, has been blamed variously on malaria, an intestinal infection and lead poisoning. In April an Italian art historian put forward a new theory - that the artist was murdered on the orders of the Knights of Malta to avenge the attack on one of their members. Vincenzo Pacelli said he had found evidence in the Vatican Secret Archives and other sources in Rome that the chivalric order, which was formed during the Crusades, had Caravaggio's body dumped in the sea near Civitavecchia north of Rome.