News
How Does the Vatican Protect Its Digitized Collection From Hackers?
The Vatican Apostolic Library says it experiences an average of 100 cyber threats every month since it started its digitization project in 2012.
Vatican
News
Mexico Asks Vatican for Temporary Return of Ancient Indigenous Manuscripts
Ahead of the 500-year anniversary of the Spanish conquest of the Aztec empire, Mexican president Andrés Manuel López Obrador has requested several manuscripts in the Vatican’s library.
In Brief
Raphael’s Tapestries Unite at Sistine Chapel for the First Time Since the Renaissance
The tapestries — made out of silk, wool, and gold and silver thread — have been restored over the past decade by conservationists at the Vatican Museum.
News
Vatican Unveils New Sculpture as Homage to Refugees
“Angels Unaware” by Canadian artist Timothy P. Schmalz shows 140 migrants in a refugee boat and is now on view in the Vatican’s St. Peter’s Square.
Art
The Divergence of Art and Fashion at the Metropolitan Museum
Presenting contemporary garments alongside Byzantine and Medieval artworks underlines the visual differences between the two genres of objects.
Art
Soaking in the Materiality of the Vatican
BOGOTÁ, Colombia — For those who can't travel to the Vatican, a photographic series by Massimo Listro offers a chance to wander imaginatively through its halls.
News
Crimes of the Art
On this week’s art crime blotter: selfie-taking vandals at the Colosseum, former Vatican worker holds stolen Michelangelo letter ransom, and ISIS mounts cyber attack on Midwestern crafts museum.
In Brief
Vatican Rents Out Sistine Chapel as New Visitor Limits Are Announced
For the first time in its 600-year history, the Sistine Chapel has been rented out for a private event organized by Porsche, The Telegraph reported.
News
Vatican to Digitize 41 Million Pages of Ancient Manuscripts
What happens when a wide swath of history — previously only explored by white-gloved librarians and erudite historians — is made available to anyone with a solid internet connection? Thanks to the Pope, we’ll soon find out.
News
Vatican and Oxford Launch Ambitious Digital Archive of Ancient Texts
The Bodleian Library at the University of Oxford and the Vatican Library have some of the richest collections of ancient biblical texts, but most of them are inaccessible to the general public. Now, through a collaborative project, 1.5 million manuscript pages are being digitized for public access o
Opinion
First Western Painting of Native Americans Discovered at the Vatican
During the recent restoration of Pinturicchio's Resurrection fresco (1494) on the wall of the Hall of Mysteries in the Borgia Apartment at the Vatican has revealed what may be the first images of Native Americans in European art.
News
The Vatican Will Mount a Pavilion Exhibition at the 2013 Venice Biennale
[This post has been corrected, see below for details] Just as Pope Francis begins his tenure at the head of the Catholic Church, the announcement comes that the Vatican will finally have its own pavilion at the Venice Biennale, themed around the Book of Genesis.