Vatican Stalls Return Of Stolen Treasures From Former European Colonies
ROME — A leading academic who has called for the return of precious artifacts “stolen by Pope Pius XI and his missionaries” from Indigenous First Nations communities has urged Pope Leo XIV and the Vatican Museums to “rethink their colonial mindset.”
Gloria Bell, author of “Eternal Sovereigns: Indigenous Artists, Activists, and Travelers Reframing Rome,” told Religion Unplugged the Vatican is not only stalling on Pope Francis’ promises of restoring the looted artifacts — but continues to falsely “refer to everything in their collection as a ‘gift.’”
“Pope Francis made some promises to engage in restitution, but as of yet, nothing has happened,” Bell, a professor in the department of Art History and Communication Studies at McGill University in Canada, said.
“The majority of the Indigenous arts collection, including sacred ancestors at ‘Anima Mundi,’ was amassed to please the greed of Pope Pius XI, who demanded everything and anything related to Indigenous life for his 1925 Vatican Missionary Exhibition,” Bell added. “Pope Leo could do the right thing by engaging in dialogue and restitution and working with Indigenous communities; a big step would be restituting Indigenous ancestors and belongings that are held like prisoners in the Vatican Museums’ Anima Mundi collection.”
While flying back from Hungary in April 2023, Pope Francis told the Associated Press that restoring the looted artifacts was “the right gesture” and “good for everyone, so you don’t get used to putting your hands in someone else’s pockets.”
“The Seventh Commandment comes to mind: If you steal something, you have to give it back,” Francis emphasized at the time. “The restitution of the indigenous things is underway with Canada — at least we agreed to do it.” The treasures would be restored as part of a “pilgrimage of penance.”
Bell explained how the Vatican is perpetuating “a false and erroneous narrative” by describing the artifacts as “trophies” of Pope Pius XI.
“To date, the Vatican Museums have lacked transparency and accountability to Indigenous folks and the global community of scholars,” Bell said. “There is no acknowledgement of the colonial ethos of the collection in the museum wall labels and curatorial catalogues.”
In May, Victoria Pruden, president of the Métis National Council, attended Pope Leo’s inaugural Mass in Rome, asking the Vatican “to work with Métis knowledge-keepers, historians, and experts to identify which items in their collection belong to our people and to return them.”
The artifacts include an Inuvialuit sealskin kayak, embroidered Cree leather gloves, a 200-year-old wampum belt, a baby belt from the Gwich’in people, and a beluga tooth necklace.
“These artifacts were taken during eras of profound injustice. Their return is an essential step in advancing reconciliation and repairing the deep harms caused by colonial policies,” Pruden said in a news release.
Pope Francis died earlier this year. The new pope, Leo XIV, was elected the new head of the Catholic Church this past May.
Vatican Library drags feet on Ethiopian manuscripts
The Vatican is also stalling on the return of 325 Ethiopian Orthodox manuscripts looted by the governor of Harar, Enrico Cerulli, during fascist Italy’s occupation of the East African nation from 1936 to 1942. The texts are currently stored in the Vatican Library.
Ethiopia, which suffered the genocide of a million Orthodox Christians and thousands of priests at the hands of Italian fascists supported by Italy’s Catholic Church, is seeking the return of the manuscripts.
Cerulli, an Orientalist scholar who was accused of war crimes, donated the manuscripts to the Vatican in 1945. The texts dating from the 15th to 17th centuries include sermons, biblical excerpts, hymns, antiphons, and a commentary on the letters of St. Paul, written in Gəcəz and Amharic.
It was during Cerulli’s term as vice-governor general that 2,000 monks were massacred at the Däbrä Libanos monastery, writes Professor Paolo Borruso, historian at the Catholic University of Milan, in his book “Debre Libanos: The Most Serious War Crime Suffered by Ethiopia.”
Director of the Ethiopian Heritage Authority, Abebaw Ayalew Gella, told The Telegraph that experts are drawing up inventories of the valuables held in the Vatican and Italy and “are working on the mechanism of how to get them back.”
Religion Unplugged found that the manuscripts have already been inventoried in the “Inventario dei Manoscritti Cerulli Etiopici” published by the Vatican Library.
Calls for an apology
The Vatican has also ignored multiple appeals for an apology for its complicity in the slaughter of Ethiopian Orthodox Christians, even with mustard gas and the pillaging and destruction of thousands of churches in Ethiopia.
Ian Campbell’s “Holy War: The Untold Story of Catholic Italy’s Crusade Against the Ethiopian Orthodox Church” describes how Pope Pius XI in 1935, “declared Ethiopian Orthodox Christians to be heretics, thus designating them Enemies of the Faith.” The Italian bishops “promoted and sanctified the invasion, granting it the status of a crusade.”
“The loot was enormous,” writes Campbell, citing primary sources who reported how fascist soldiers, “needed seven or eight trucks ‘to carry the silver and gold vessels, the precious crosses, the prelate’s staves and the valuable religious paintings and manuscripts.’”
The Vatican Museums may also contain stolen objects from Nigeria, according to an appendix in Dan Hicks’ “The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution.”
“Artworks often reflect what is most important and sacred in a culture. They are deeply connected with the makers and communities that bring them into existence,” art historian Dr. Caroline Kaye told Religion Unplugged. “Sometimes they are made from valuable materials.”
“Their intrinsic value is in the meanings invested in the objects, their physical presence, which is tied up with their ability to be seen. Hiding and containing artefacts from view denies the experience of God-given creativity working for the good,” Kaye added.
The Vatican Library and the Vatican’s ambassador to Ethiopia did not respond to requests for comment.
In 2022, Pope Francis ordered the Vatican Museums to return three Parthenon marbles to Greece. It clarified that the return was a spiritually motivated gift between the two churches, not a bilateral return between two states.
“The Vatican still hasn’t returned to the Jewish state a number of artifacts that belong to the Jewish people,” noted Tunisian-Israeli lawyer Michael Calvo, “including several books, manuscripts, Torah scrolls, Talmuds and one Temple candelabra given to Pope Innocent III.”
Jules Gomes has a doctorate in biblical studies from the University of Cambridge. Currently a Vatican-accredited journalist based in Rome, he is the author of five books and several academic articles. Gomes lectured at Catholic and Protestant seminaries and universities and was canon theologian and artistic director at Liverpool Cathedral.