Former Vatican employee arrested for alleged fraud as part of undercover operation

ROME – A former Vatican employee was arrested in an undercover operation and is currently behind bars awaiting trial for attempting to sell back a manuscript he allegedly stole from the archives of St. Peter’s Basilica, the Vatican confirmed Thursday, after the incident was first reported in Italian newspaper The 4000. Domani.

However, at least one person with knowledge of the manuscript in question expressed doubts as to whether it was actually ever part of the basilica’s archives.

Although the report by the state news agency Vatican News does not name the suspect, Domani and other Italian media have identified him as Alfio Maria Daniele Pergolizzi, an art historian who headed the communications office of St. Peter’s Basilica from 1995 to 2011.

According to data from DomaniOn May 27, Pergolizzi, accompanied by another unidentified person, met with Italian Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, head of the administration of St. Peter’s Basilica, to sell him a manuscript from the school of the artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini describing the gold needed to decorate the famous baldachin that rises above the main altar of the basilica.

According to Vatican News, the administration of St. Peter’s Basilica informed the Vatican’s ecclesiastical attorney that the manuscript had originally been part of its archives but then disappeared, only to reappear in 2021 as a photocopy in a book published the same year and edited by Pergolizzi, who is now trying to resell it.

During the May 27 meeting, Gambetti reportedly gave Pergolizzi a check for around $130,000 in exchange for the manuscript. But the transaction was a trap: Shortly afterward, Pergolizzi and the person accompanying him were arrested outside the Domus Santa Marta, the residence where Pope Francis lives, and interrogated by Vatican gendarmes.

While the unnamed defendant was released, Pergolizzi was taken into custody and is reportedly now in a cell in the Vatican prison awaiting charges of extortion, fraud and receiving stolen goods.

“The accused is currently being held in custody by the Vatican State Gendarmerie,” the Vatican News report said. “In recent days he has been subjected to two interrogations and next week the prosecutor, in consultation with the investigating judge, will make a decision on whether to press charges.”

The Vatican’s Minister of Justice is the experienced Italian lawyer Alessandro Diddi. He was the lead prosecutor in the recent “trial of the century” for financial fraud, which resulted in the conviction of nine defendants, including the Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu.

Another Italian media company, Dagospiaalso reported that Italian authorities had seized certain goods that Pergolizzi had kept in a warehouse, presumably to search for other items he may have removed from the Vatican during his tenure.

But according to the same report, Maria Grazia D’Amelio, professor of architecture at the University of Tor Vergata in Rome and author of the 2021 volume edited by Pergolizzi entitled Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini and the gold for the baldachin of St. Peter (1624-1633)has stated that during her extensive research in the archives of St. Peter’s Basilica she has never seen any trace or reference to the manuscript.

D’Amelio said she had never seen the original manuscript, only a scanned copy provided to her by Pergolizzi.

According to media reports, Pergolizzi told the gendarmes that he had received the manuscript from Italian Monsignor Vittorino Canciani, a former canon of St. Peter’s Basilica who died in 2014. According to the reports, he claims that the manuscript was part of a private collection and came into Canciani’s possession, rather than being stolen from St. Peter’s Basilica archives – a possibility that the prosecutor’s office is expected to examine as part of its review.

Meanwhile, at least one Italian news site has criticized the prosecutor’s deceptions in luring Pergolizzi into the trap. The news site “Faro di Roma” (“Lighthouse of Rome”), which has often criticized Diddi’s handling of the prosecution of Becciu, also expressed its disapproval in this case.

“Clearly this is an investigation based on a trap for a former employee who admittedly may not have behaved like one,” said a May 6 article. “Nevertheless, it is baffling that this kind of logic is being followed in Vatican City.”