{"id":1774812,"date":"2022-12-14T10:04:25","date_gmt":"2022-12-14T15:04:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1774812"},"modified":"2022-12-14T10:04:58","modified_gmt":"2022-12-14T15:04:58","slug":"italian-firm-peddling-rights-to-vaticans-priceless-art-attorney-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/italian-firm-peddling-rights-to-vaticans-priceless-art-attorney-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Italian Firm Peddling Rights To Vatican\u2019s Priceless Art, Attorney Says"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fitalian-firm-peddling-rights-to-vaticans-priceless-art-attorney-says%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1774812&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>VATICAN CITY\u2014 Rights to the Vatican Museums\u2019 priceless trove of art treasures may have been illegally sold without the Holy See\u2019s approval in what one attorney described as a \u201chigh-tech heist,\u201d according to a Daily Wire investigation.<\/p>\n<p>The Vatican Museums own some 70,000 works of art, including works by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo\u2019s ceiling mural in the Sistine Chapel. Its museums draw over <a href=\"https:\/\/www.catholicworldreport.com\/2020\/05\/21\/the-profitable-vatican-museums-remain-closed-look-toward-a-june-opening\/\">six million visitors annually<\/a> and bring in more than $120 million in revenue. But an Italian company is allegedly selling the rights to reproduce the Vatican artwork in six-figure deals, while claiming to be working in \u201ccollaboration with\u201d the Vatican Museums.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis scheme is nothing less than a pre-meditated, high-tech heist of world-class treasured art from the Vatican Museums under the disguise of bogus licenses, as if sanctioned by the Vatican,\u201d Sarah Rose Speno, a New York attorney, told The Daily Wire.<\/p>\n<p>Rights to reproduce the art could bring in needed revenue for the Vatican, which reported\u00a0a deficit of more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.thebostonpilot.com\/article.php?ID=192954\">$3 million<\/a> last year amid ongoing <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/\">financial<\/a> and sex abuse scandals. Speno believes\u00a0the parties misappropriating rights to Vatican artwork housed exclusively within Vatican Museums and under the jurisdiction of the Vatican are in effect stealing from the Holy See.<\/p>\n<p>Speno said she stumbled upon the alleged scheme in March when she sought permission to use images of Vatican art for an exhibition by a client.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-464793\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-464793\" src=\"https:\/\/www.dailywire.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-16-at-10.10.01-AM-300x269.png\" alt=\"Speno, an attorney who has done contract work for decades, said the Italian company&#039;s demands raised her suspicions.\" width=\"300\" height=\"269\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-16-at-10.10.01-AM-300x269-1.png 300w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-16-at-10.10.01-AM-643x576-1.png 643w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-16-at-10.10.01-AM-768x688-1.png 768w, https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/12\/Screen-Shot-2022-11-16-at-10.10.01-AM.png 824w\" style=\"display:none\"><\/p>\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-464793\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Speno, an attorney who has done contract work for decades, said the Italian company\u2019s demands raised her suspicions. (Sarah Speno)<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe discovered that a large table book had been published with high-resolution images of the interiors of the Vatican, including the Sistine Chapel,\u201d Speno said. \u201cWe very much wanted to pursue an opportunity to license these images, as soon as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Speno, who has worked on licensing contracts for more than 30 years, contacted <a href=\"https:\/\/www.scriptamaneant.com\/sm\/negozio\/la-cappella-sistina-3-volumi\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Scripta Maneant<\/a> \u2014 the Italian publisher that licensed the photos in the book. Scripta Maneant claimed authority to broker the publishing rights via its \u201ccollaboration\u201d with Vatican Museums vice director, Monsignore Paolo Nicolini. Scripta Maneant wanted $550,000 for the rights \u2014 with a portion being paid to the Vatican through Nicolini, according to Speno. Although Scripta Maneant claimed the fee would be shared with the Vatican, Speno said she later became suspicious.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe Scripta Maneant scheme became obvious when the Scripta principals demanded a cash wire in the amount of $82,500 no later than their return from summer holiday in late August,\u201d Speno said. \u201cThey said that they would produce Vatican approval for our Italian Renaissance Immersive project \u2018if and only if\u2019 the fee were wired to the Scripta bank account they provided. It was at this point that grave suspicion entered my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, Speno said, \u201cwe terminated the deal when Scripta could not provide us with documented consent by the Vatican.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>According to the contract Scripta Maneant provided Speno, the company had been given exclusive access to the Sistine Chapel by the Vatican Museums back in 2015. But documents reviewed by The Daily Wire suggest that the deal only covered access to take high-resolution images of Vatican artwork for a limited edition book, priced at over $22,000 a copy. Vatican Museums told The Daily Wire that Scripta Maneant\u2019s licensing rights to the images obtained in 2015 were contractually restricted \u2014 limited solely to their company, for one project. No exclusive, unlimited, worldwide rights were provided, and no rights to sub-license the photos of Vatican Museums artwork to third parties were granted, officials said.<\/p>\n<p>Nicolini, whom Scripta Maneant cited as its authorizing Vatican contact, told The Daily Wire he never gave Scripta Maneant approval to broker rights to Vatican art images. He denied Scripta Maneant\u2019s claims it had rights to reuse or sub-license images from the 2015 contract. He also adamantly denied handling any funds related to the Vatican\u2019s dealings with Scripta Maneant.<\/p>\n<p>Communications reviewed by The Daily Wire indicate Scripta Maneant sold licensing rights over a year ago to <a href=\"https:\/\/lighthouseimmersive.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Lighthouse Immersive<\/a>\u00a0for its \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/immersivevatican.com\/home-old\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Immersive Vatican<\/a>\u201d exhibition, which launched in October. Speno suspects that exhibition was facilitated by a Scripta Maneant contract much like the one she rejected.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt the same time my investors received their \u2018exclusive license agreement\u2019 from Scripta, Lighthouse Immersive announced their \u2018Immersive Vatican Exhibition in collaboration with The Vatican,\u2019\u201d Speno said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cImmersive Vatican\u201d appears set to follow Lighthouse Immersive\u2019s other events, such as \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/immersive-kingtut.com\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Immersive King Tut<\/a>,\u201d nationwide. According to its website, visitors in Boston paid up to $79.99 to experience \u201cthe art world\u2019s best-kept secrets\u201d and \u201ciconic and rarely seen masterpieces brought to life.\u201d The site touted the event as being conducted in \u201ccollaboration with the Vatican.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Nicolini denied any knowledge of Lighthouse Immersive or Scripta Maneant\u2019s dealings with the company. He said no<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VATICAN CITY\u2014 Rights to the Vatican Museums\u2019 priceless trove of art treasures may have been illegally sold without the Holy See\u2019s approval in what one attorney described as a \u201chigh-tech heist,\u201d according to a Daily Wire investigation. The Vatican Museums own some 70,000 works of art, including works by Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo\u2019s ceiling &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1626,"featured_media":1774815,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[541],"tags":[7331,4930,6202,5246,8884,8885,8882,5579,8883,6195],"class_list":["post-1774812","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-daily-wire","tag-art","tag-attorney","tag-daily","tag-firm","tag-italian","tag-peddling","tag-priceless","tag-rights","tag-vaticans","tag-wire"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774812","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1626"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1774812"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1774812\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1774815"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1774812"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1774812"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1774812"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}