(Reuters. Reuters staff).
Vatican police arrested a former employee for allegedly trying to sell to the city-state a 17th-century manuscript by Italian Baroque master Gian Lorenzo Bernini that had previously disappeared from archives, a Vatican spokesman said. Experts said the 18-page document, with gilded miniatures, contains the first details of the decorative features in the canopy of St. Peter’s Basilica designed by sculptor and architect Bernini.
Bernini is considered the leading master of Italian Baroque architecture in the 17th century and among his masterpieces is the colonnade that surrounds St. Peter’s Square. The suspect, who was arrested on May 27 on charges of attempted extortion, had worked for the Fabric of St. Peter, the institution responsible for the conservation and maintenance of St Peter’s Basilica. He remains in custody at the Vatican and has been questioned twice in recent days, the spokesman added. Vatican prosecutors will decide next week on whether he will be formally indicted.