Vatican police have detained a former employee on charges of attempted extortion after he allegedly tried to sell a 17th-century gilded manuscript describing Bernini’s designs for the altar canopy of St. Peter’s Basilica back to the Holy See.
Vatican prosecutors said that the 18-page manuscript, which apparently contains the first known specifications for the gilding of the Baldacchino canopy, had disappeared from the basilica archives.
The statement suggested that Vatican law enforcement had essentially set a trap: They launched an investigation after the basilica first made a complaint about the manuscript, and then followed the negotiations for the purchase of it until the money actually exchanged hands on May 27 in the Vatican.
The person implicated had worked for the Fabbrica di San Pietro. This entity administers the basilica and was attempting to sell the manuscript to the Fabbrica when he was arrested on May 27, according to a statement from prosecutors released by the Holy See press office.
The Italian newspaper Domani reported on the case on Thursday, stating that there is a dispute about the origins of the manuscript and whether it had been in the basilica archives before. An art historian, who is a friend of the accused, mentioned that there is no record of the manuscript in the basilica archives catalogue since at least 1900. Read more