The small but welcoming cells of the Vatican prison have a tenant again: a former employee of the Fabbrica di San Pietro who has been arrested on charges of receiving stolen goods, extortion and fraud against Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, the high priest of the Vatican Cathedral.
The man’s name is Alfio Pergolesi and he has been in detention for ten days awaiting trial. The hero of this story will not be new to similar scams that always concern historical and artistic documents that have disappeared from the archives of the Fabbrica di San Pietro such as a manuscript by Michelangelo.
Former Vatican employee scam
Ten days earlier, Pergolizzi appears to have presented himself to Cardinal Gambetti by appointment, in company with another person, to attempt to sell to the Vatican a 17th-century manuscript relating to the manufacture and inlay of Bernini’s Baldacene which is currently being restored.
It appears that this document is part of that money that has disappeared over the years and which the gendarmes are also investigating with difficulty, because not all documents kept in the cathedral archives for centuries have been written down, recorded or digitized.
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When Cardinal Gambetti found himself in front of Pergolizzi, he expressed his interest in the purchase by writing a check for 120,000 euros, although in fact this passage had been previously agreed with the Gendarmerie, which stopped the purchase upon leaving the borders of the Vatican State. The man was taken to the barracks for an initial assessment. After the first interrogation Pergolesi was arrested.
Investigations
Pending the continuation of the investigations and further investigations: The hypothesis of the prosecutors of Oltrettivere Alessandro Didi and Giuseppe Deodato – as revealed by Il Domani and confirmed by various sources to the newspaper Il Messaggero – is that the document has been stolen from the historical heritage. Archive Fabrica di San Pietro. The question now is whether this document was released by Pergolizzi during the time he worked there, or by someone who helped him in the process.
Crime In the Vatican, two documents disappeared: after Michelangelo’s letter also another old sheet
the previous
This episode is connected to a case forgotten years ago and reopened by Messaggero nine years ago. Over the past decade, someone who had free access to the archives of St. Peter’s Basilica has also hidden a unique, unique and rare object. Stereoscopic letter by Michelangelo Buonarroti. This paper is perhaps the only copy preserved in the Vatican that the Tuscan architect and artist wrote entirely by hand, from beginning to end. Which is really rare, considering that Michelagnolo usually – as he signed himself – put his nervous signature on the texts that he dictated to his collaborators. Even on that occasion a fraud attempt was made. The document was proposed for 120 thousand euros to the Vatican. As for Cardinal Angelo Comastri at the time, who was less skilled in dealing with his successor, he took his time and allowed his interlocutor to leave his office. Only later did he notify the police. Meanwhile, the man who wanted to sell Michelangelo’s letter to him – after being disturbed – did not appear again and it ended there, until the day’s conclusion.
Vatican Michelangelo’s letter stolen: Ex-employee demands €100,000 ransom
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