Vatican Museums

The “shining” star of the next appointment with Thursdays in the Museums, on 24 June at 04.30 p.m., will be the Capsella Vaticana: the precious reliquary casket in engraved and embossed silver from the inestimable “Treasury” of the Sancta Sanctorum (Chapel of St. Lawrence in Palatio at the Lateran, Rome).

Now in the Vatican Museums, in a display case in the Chapel of St. Peter Martyr, the object - which is thought to date back to the time of Emperor Heraclius (610-641) - was most probably used as a Eucharistic pyx.

The Vatican conference will focus on the delicate restoration work recently carried out on the pyx, which involved experimenting with an innovative cold plasma cleaning technique.

The usual introduction by the Director Barbara Jatta will be followed by interventions by Dr. Maria Serlupi Crescenzi, Curator of the Department of Decorative Arts and Director of Works, Professor Ulderico Santamaria, Director of the Cabinet of Scientific Research applied to Cultural Heritage, Dr. Fabio Morresi, diagnostic assistant at the same Laboratory, and Dr. Barbara Pinto Folicaldi, the restorer of the Metals and Ceramics Laboratory who carried out the conservation work.