Vatican Arrests Former Employee on Charges of Attempted Extortion


 
The basis of the accusation was a manuscript by Bernini that had disappeared from the archives: "negotiations" had been started with the Basilica for its return. Following investigations by the Promoter of Justice, on May 27, after exchanging the volume for a sum of money in the Vatican, the man was arrested. A decision on the indictment will be made next week
Vatican News
At the end of May, a former employee of the Fabbrica di San Pietro was arrested on charges of attempted extortion. This was announced by the Office of the Promoter of Justice following the publication of the news by the Italian newspaper Domani.
The basis of the accusation is an 18-page manuscript by Bernini with gilded miniatures, which, according to scholars, described the first specifications for the gilding of the friezes of the canopy of St. Peter's Basilica, which had disappeared from the Fabbrica's archives. The manuscript reappeared in a text published in 2021, with an attached photostatic copy. The publisher of the volume, a former employee of the Fabbrica, had subsequently started negotiations with the Basilica for the return of the volume.
Following a complaint from the Fabbrica, the office of the Promoter of Justice then started investigations and followed the phases of the negotiation until its final phase, on May 27th, when, after the exchange of the volume for a sum of money, occurred in the Vatican, the person concerned was arrested.
The accused is currently in custody at the Vatican City State Gendarmerie. In recent days he has been subjected to two interrogations and in the next week, in agreement with the investigating judge, the Promoter of Justice will make a decision regarding the indictment.
Source: Vatican News Italian
(The man, Alfio Maria Daniele Pergolizzi, is now under arrest in the Vatican prisons, and could soon be sent to trial on charges of receiving stolen goods, extortion and fraud. The news of the case was reported this morning by the newspaper Domani .)

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