АВС: From the Hermitage museum collection: St Petersburg (compiled by Livshits L. , Seklikova M. ) Featuring works of art from the State Hermitage:

БЂњTo understand why the Pope has such collections,БЂ«explained the Vatican БЂ™s expert in charge of maintaining them, Maurizio de Luca, БЂњone must think about what the Church and the pope have meant over the centuries. The popes and their court at the time were the greatest supporters of culture. This is the place where the popes put some of the greatest artists to work and these have now become collections.БЂ«In 2001, БЂњtwo former senior officials at the Vatican were charged in Rome in connection with an alleged art fraud. Monsignor Michele Basso, an ex-administrator of the chapter of St. PeterБЂ™s, and Monsignor Mario Giordana, a former counselor in the VaticanБЂ™s Italian embassy, were accused of trying to sell works of art falsely attributed to artists such as Michelangelo, Guercino and Giambologna, to art institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the National Gallery in WashingtonБЂ¦ The most remarkable works were a marble bust, the Young St. Johnthe Baptist, attributed to Michelangelo, and an antique Greek vase attributed to Euphronius ...»