An aspect of the Sistine Chapel restoration that sometimes raises eyebrows is the financing provided by the Nippon Television Network Corporation of Japan (NTV), presumably because of the notion in some quarters that any prominent Japanese stake overseas must somehow be sinister.

Vatican officials have long let it be known that the Japanese simply made them an offer they could not refuse. No Italian corporation came close to matching NTV's original -and, many think, modest - $3 million grant, which grew over the last decade to $4.2 million. No American network, the Vatican says, showed any interest at all.

In return for underwriting the costs and documenting the entire restoration project with a new cold-lighting technique that would not harm the frescoes, NTV obtained exclusive photographic, film and television rights. It has already produced at least 11 documentaries, including two in English for overseas distribution, and two coffee-table books, translated into several languages. It has not disclosed what profit it has made, if any.

Network officials say their exclusive arrangement does not extend to ordinary tourists, who are nonetheless prohibited by the Vatican from taking snapshots in the chapel - a ban often honored in the breach.