Following the investigation by the Promoter of Justice, the man was arrested on May 27, after the volume was exchanged for a sum of money at the Vatican. A decision on the accusation will be made next week.

A former employee of the Fabbrica San Pietro was arrested at the end of May on charges of attempted extortion. This was announced by the Office of the Promoter of Justice after the publication of the news in the Italian newspaper Domani.

At the base of the accusation is an 18-page Bernini manuscript, with gilded miniatures, in which, according to scholars, the first specifications for the gilding of the friezes of the baldachin of St. Peter’s Basilica, which had disappeared from the Fabbrica archives. The manuscript had reappeared in a text published in 2021, with a photostatic copy attached. The editor of the volume, a former employee of the Factory, had subsequently begun negotiations with the Basilica for the return of the volume.

Following a complaint from the Fabbrica, the office of the Promoter of Justice then began investigations and followed the negotiation phases until their final stage, on May 27, when the volume was exchanged for a sum of money in the Vatican, and the person in question 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 next week, according to the investigating judge, the Promoter of Justice will make a decision on the accusation.