Former employee arrested in Vatican sting operation for alleged fraud

ROME – A former Vatican employee was arrested in a sting operation and is currently behind bars awaiting formal charges for trying to resell a manuscript he allegedly stole from the Vatican's archives. Peter's Basilica, the Vatican confirmed Thursday, after the incident was first reported. reported in the Italian newspaper Domani.

At least one person familiar with the manuscript in question, however, cast doubt on whether it was actually part of the basilica's archives.

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

According to details provided by DomaniPergolizzi, accompanied by another unidentified individual, met Italian Cardinal Mauro Gambetti, head of the administration of St. Peter's Basilica, on May 27 to sell him a manuscript prepared by the school of the artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini describing the gold needed to decorate the famous basilica. Baldachin which rises above the main altar of the basilica.

According to Vatican News, the administration of St. Peter's Basilica informed the Vatican Promoter of Justice that the manuscript was initially part of its archives but had disappeared, only to resurface in 2021 as a photocopy in a book published this year- there and edited by Pergolizzi, who was now trying to resell it.

At the May 27 meeting, Gambetti allegedly gave Pergolizzi a check for approximately $130,000 in exchange for the manuscript, but the transaction was a trap: shortly afterward, Pergolizzi and the individual accompanying him were arrested in front of the Domus Santa Marta, the residence where Pope Francis is alive and questioned by the Vatican gendarmes.

While the unnamed individual was released, Pergolizzi was taken into custody and, according to reports, is currently in a Vatican prison cell awaiting formal charges for extortion, fraud and receiving stolen property.

“Currently, the accused is detained in the offices of the Vatican City State Gendarmes,” the Vatican News report said. “In recent days, he has been subjected to two interrogations and next week, in agreement with the investigating judge, the Promoter of Justice will make a decision regarding an indictment.”

The Vatican's promoter of justice is veteran Italian lawyer Alessandro Diddi, who was the lead prosecutor in the recent “trial of the century” for financial fraud that resulted in the conviction of nine defendants, including Italian Cardinal Angelo Becciu.

Another Italian media, Dagospiealso reported that Italian authorities had sequestered some property that Pergolizzi had stored in a warehouse, likely to search for other items he might have removed from the Vatican during his tenure.

However, according to this same report, Maria Grazia D'Amelio, professor of architecture at the Tor Vergata University of Rome and author of the 2021 volume edited by Pergolizzi, entitled Giovanni Lorenzo Bernini and the gold of the canopy of Saint-Pierre (1624-1633)said she has never seen any trace or reference to the manuscript during the multiple times she has used the archives of St. Peter's Basilica in her research.

D'Amelio said she never saw the original manuscript, only a scanned copy provided to her by Pergolizzi.

Media reported that Pergolizzi told gendarmes that he had received the manuscript from Italian Monsignor Vittorino Canciani, a former canon of St. Peter's Basilica who died in 2014. Reports suggest his claim is that the manuscript was part of a private collection coming into Canciani's possession, rather than being stolen from the basilica's archives – a possibility which, presumably, will be examined by the office of the Promoter of Justice as part of its review.

Meanwhile, at least one Italian news site has criticized the Promoter of Justice's use of deception to entrap Pergolizzi. The news site “Faro di Roma” (“Lighthouse of Rome”), which frequently criticized Diddi's handling of Becciu's trial, also expressed disapproval over the matter.

“Clearly, this is an investigation based on a trap set for a former employee, who, admittedly, may not have behaved as such,” read a May 6 article. “Nevertheless, it is astonishing that this kind of logic is followed within the Vatican State.”