ART AND CULTURE.
Pope Francis decided to return three fragments of the Parthenon sculptures kept in the Vatican Museums, in the form of a 'donation', to the head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece.
These are fragments of the pediment, frieze and of a metope of the Parthenon, which have been kept in the collections of the Vatican Museums since the 19th century.
The return of the three fragments had already been officially announced in December 2022. This gesture towards Greece follows only a few months after the return of three ancient mummies, also from the Vatican Museums, to Peru.
Pope Francis decided to return three fragments of the Parthenon sculptures kept in the Vatican Museums, in the form of a 'donation', to the head of the Greek Orthodox Church, Archbishop Ieronymos of Athens and All Greece.
These are fragments of the pediment, frieze and of a metope of the Parthenon, which have been kept in the collections of the Vatican Museums since the 19th century.
The return of the three fragments had already been officially announced in December 2022. This gesture towards Greece follows only a few months after the return of three ancient mummies, also from the Vatican Museums, to Peru.
The Greek Minister of Culture, Lina Mendoni, and the general director of the Acropolis Museum, Nikolaos Stampolidis, arrived in Rome to sign the necessary agreements and on 8 March the fragments will be transferred to the Acropolis Museum.
The Parthenon is a Greek temple that stands on the Acropolis in Athens and is dedicated to the goddess Athena, protector of the capital. It is considered the most important and famous monument of Ancient Greece and is considered to be the finest achievement of Greek architecture to the extent that its sculptures are considered masterpieces of Greek art.