In ecumenical nod, Pope returns Greece’s Parthenon Sculptures

Pope Francis, photographed at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican in December 2021. On December 16, the Vatican announced that the pope had decided to return three fragments of the Parthenon Sculptures, held for centuries by its museums, as an ecumenical gesture honoring the archbishop of Greece. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Quirinale.it.
Pope Francis, photographed at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican in December 2021. On December 16, the Vatican announced that the pope had decided to return three fragments of the Parthenon Sculptures, held for centuries by its museums, as an ecumenical gesture honoring the archbishop of Greece. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Quirinale.it.
Pope Francis, photographed at the Apostolic Palace in December 2021. On December 16, the Vatican announced that the pope had decided to return three fragments of the Parthenon Sculptures, held for centuries by its museums, as an ecumenical gesture honoring the archbishop of Greece. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Quirinale.it.

VATICAN CITY (AP) – Pope Francis has decided to send back to Greece the three fragments of Parthenon Sculptures that the Vatican Museums have held for centuries, the Vatican announced on December 16.

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Vatican says artifacts were gifts; some Indigenous groups push for their return

Some of the world's greatest art and historical treasures are held in the Vatican museums; shown here is a display at the Musei Vaticani, taken in May 2015. Canadian Indigenous groups are requesting the return of objects held in a lesser-known Vatican museum, the Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Ank Kumar. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Some of the world's greatest art and historical treasures are held in the Vatican museums; shown here is a display at the Musei Vaticani, taken in May 2015. Canadian Indigenous groups are requesting the return of objects held in a lesser-known Vatican museum, the Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Ank Kumar. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
Some of the world’s greatest art and historical treasures are held in the Vatican museums; shown here is a display at the Musei Vaticani, taken in May 2015. Canadian Indigenous groups are requesting the return of objects held in a lesser-known Vatican museum, the Anima Mundi Ethnological Museum. Image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons, photo credit Ank Kumar. Shared under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.

VATICAN CITY (AP) – The Vatican Museums are home to some of the most magnificent artworks in the world, from Michelangelo’s Sistine Chapel to ancient Egyptian antiquities and a pavilion full of papal chariots. But one of the museum’s least-visited collections is becoming its most contested before Pope Francis’ trip to Canada.

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