Friday, January 14, 2011

Opening of Vatican museum is marred by scandal

The walls still smell of fresh paint and the white leather benches are unmarked. 

The Missionary Museum of Propaganda Fide, now known as the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples, has recently opened in Rome. 

It is the only museum belonging to the Holy See, operated outside the walls of Vatican City.

The beauty of the vessel far exceeds the value of its contents; the collection of 10,000 photographs of the evangelisation of Africa and Asia are of specialist interest. 

On the other hand, the restored palace, a masterpiece of Italian baroque with a facade overlooking Piazza d'Espana, deserves a visit.

The official opening last month rekindled the controversy around this project. 

The palace, which flies the yellow and white flag of the Papacy, required restoration work to the tune of $20m.

The Vatican therefore appealed to the Italian government.

In 2004 the Society for the Development of Art, Culture and Entertainment (Arcus), a public body, agreed to cover $6.5m of the costs.

For six years restoration work proceeded smoothly, then last spring an investigation by public prosecutors took them to Piazza d'Espana.

Between 2001 and 2006 the then infrastructure minister, Pietro Lunardi, purchased a building in Rome's historic centre at a price below its market value. The seller was the Congregation, then headed by Cardinal Crescenzio Sepe. 

The investigators suspect that the sale was agreed to compensate for the government funds Propaganda Fide received.

In June both Lunardi and Sepe, now archbishop of Naples, were charged with corruption.

Since then the controversy has grown. 

With drastic cuts to the arts budget and a lack of money for urgent work on the Coliseum and Pompeii, did the government really need to subsidise repairs to the headquarters of the powerful Congregation? 

"Bernini and Borromini are a part of our Italian heritage. This public money is serving the country," says Ludovico Ortona, the former Italian ambassador to France and now head of Arcus.

Be that as it may, the Italian state will never see a return on its investment. Admission fees go into the Vatican's coffers. 

Might taxpayers be allowed a free visit, we inquire. 

"No one has thought of that," Ortona replies, "but it is maybe a good idea.

SIC: TG/UK