One of the pope’s favourite painting, Marc Chagall’s White Crucifixion, will be the one that pilgrims visiting Rome from 27 November onwards can contemplate.
The Art Institute of Chicago, which has loaned the work for two months to be exhibited free of charge, will do so until 27 January, 2025.
“I am sure it will be very well received by the public,” said Archbishop Rino Fisichella, Pro-Prefect, Dicastery for Evangelisation.
“Special thanks to President Franco Parasassi of the Fondazione Roma, who immediately responded to our request and wanted to coincide the reopening of Palazzo Cipolla, as a new Museum Centre, with this extraordinary event.”
The Vatican will also participate in the Osaka Expo in Japan in 2025. At the pope’s request, the work to be sent will be the Holy Burial by Caravaggio. It is the only painting preserved by the Italian artist in the Vatican Museums. It will be outside Rome for a few months in 2025.
“Five or six months is not a short time to raise it during the Jubilee year, but the pilgrims of hope will know how to wait,” said Barbara Jatta, Director of Vatican Museums.
“In any case, there will be such an important Expo in Osaka, where we will participate in the Italian pavilion, so we gladly accept the loan.”
These artistic events are in addition to those already held in the Eternal City. One of the latest: the exhibition of Dali’s Christ, which welcomed hundreds of thousands of tourists between May and June 2024.