POPE TO GIVE PARTHENON MARBLE FRAGMENTS TO GREEK ORTHODOX ARCHBISHOP
It was announced today that Pope Francis will give His Beatitude Ieronymos II, the Greek Orthodox archbishop of Athens and All Greece, three fragments of Parthenon sculptures that have been kept in the Vatican Museums for centuries. He wants to do so, “as a concrete sign of a sincere desire to continue on the ecumenical journey of witness to the truth.”
According to the Vatican Museums website, three marble fragments from the Parthenon’s decorative sculptures arrived in the Vatican’s collection in the 19th century. The fragments include part of the head of a horse from a sculpture of Athena’s chariot, as well as the heads of sculptures of two men.
Vatican Museum photos provided by Holy See Press Office:
Joan's Rome 