A Rome prosecutor has placed a retired Vatican official under investigation for attempted fraud after he tried to sell a potentially priceless painting attributed to Michelangelo but which Italian investigators suspect to be a fake.
Mgr Michele Basso, a former director of the Vatican Archive and of a Vatican financial institution known as the Chapter of Saint Peter, is suspected of attempting to sell fake or stolen works of art worth around £30 million.
The jewel in the monsignor's private art collection, according to the Rome daily Il Messaggero, was a portrait of a young St John the Baptist attributed to Michelangelo - of enormous value if it is genuine.
Other items reportedly included paintings by Gianbologna and Guercino, Etruscan archaeological artefacts and a collection of Greek gold ornaments dating from the 6th century BC.
The works were allegedly accompanied by fake documents on Vatican-headed notepaper guaranteeing their authenticity and investigators reportedly confiscated a number of blank Vatican certificates of authenticity from two lawyers in Naples who had been asked to sell the paintings by the retired Curia official.
If the works turned out to be genuine, Mgr Basso, who lives in a Vatican apartment overlooking the dome of St Peter's Basilica, could risk prosecution for the export of works of art of national importance.
"I know I am under investigation by the Italian magistrature, but I have done nothing wrong," Mgr Basso said. "I was only trying to sell works of art and archaeological objects that belong to me to obtain funds for a project that was close to the heart of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, a hospital in Tirana." Mgr Basso said he was himself the victim of an attempted fraud by the people he had asked to sell the works of art, but he admitted he had claimed to be the owner of some works which actually belonged to other people.
According to his lawyer, Mr Lorenzo Contrada, the valuable artworks were originally gifts from the Catholic faithful and had been left to Mgr Basso by other religious in their wills.
"Basso is absolutely unconnected to any possible crimes being investigated by Rome prosecutors and when he tried to sell those paintings he was absolutely convinced that they were genuine," Mr Contrada said.
Rome's chief public prosecutor, Mr Salvatore Vecchione, said no other Vatican official was implicated in the investigation, but as thousands of young people arrive in Rome to celebrate World Youth Day with the Pope the whiff of scandal wafting around St Peter's could not be less welcome.