(ZENIT News / Rome, 27.10.2024).- A piece stolen in the 1980s from the Ad Decimum catacombs, located near Rome, was returned to the Vatican by the Government of the Low Countries on October 20, reported the Pontifical Commission of Sacred Archaeology. The Vatican received the work, which has a funerary inscription of late Antiquity, of great historical and religious relevance.
The Ad Decimum catacombs are a subterranean cemetery of Rome, used from the 3rd to the 5th century, which has many frescoes with a Christian theme. They are located in an area of the capital that goes from Saint Sebastian’s Basilica to the Circus of Maxentius, in a depression that was a pozzolana [a type of porous volcanic ash] quarry, transformed eventually by Christians into a subterranean cemetery. It has five galleries with some 1,000 buried bodies: 90% of the niches are still sealed, preserving the original remains.
Up to the end of the 1990s, it was possible to see the remains deposited in the destroyed niches; however, the bones have been moved to avoid their theft by disrespectful visitors. The stolen piece has as an inscription engraved in Greek, which is especially valuable as it mentions one of the oldest with Christ’s name.
The Police Forces of Italy and the Low Countries recovered the work in a joint operation, and found it in November 2023. It was taken to the National Museum of Utrecht for safekeeping before organizing its return to the Vatican. It was handed over in the catacombs near Grottaferrata, some 20 kilometers from Rome, attended by Representatives of the Vatican, Italy and the Low Countries.
The international cooperation for the return and protection of the cultural patrimony, shows the joint effort to preserve Christian history. The Roman catacombs are managed by the Holy See and other religious and cultural institutions.
