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Moscow museum to send exhibition of paintings on Biblical themes to Vatican

"In the short term, at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, a reciprocal exhibition of Russian art will be held in the Vatican," the Russian ambassador to the Holy See told TASS on Friday

MOSCOW, February 11. /TASS/. Moscow’s famous museum of Russian art, the Tretyakov Arts Gallery is expected to loan a display of paintings on Biblical themes to the Vatican at the end of 2017, Alexander Avdeyev, the Russian ambassador to the Holy See told TASS on Friday.

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Vatican Museums exhibition in Moscow extended by 10 days amid huge success

At the end of last November, the Vatican Museums sent an impressive display of masterpieces to the Tretyakov Gallery. The exhibition titled ‘Roma Aeterna. Masterpieces from the Vatican’s Pinacoteca’ represents of a broad panorama of Italian and European art from the pre-Renaissance period through to the 18th century, including works by Bellini, Rafael, and Caravaggio.

"In the short term, at the end of 2017 and the beginning of 2018, a reciprocal exhibition of Russian art will be held in the Vatican," Avdeyev said. "It will center on the Bible-themed masterpieces from the Tretyakov Gallery’s collection."

"In addition, a display of Russian icons will be held in the halls of the Order of Malta in spring," he said.

Consolidating the moral groundwork of international relations

Contacts between Russia and the Vatican are crucial for consolidating the moral groundwork of international relations and for the efforts to untangle the crises of nowadays, said Alexander Avdeyev.

Last December, Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov made a visit to Italy, in the course of which he had meetings in the Vatican with Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Secretary of State of the Holy See, and Archbishop Paul Richard Gallagher, the Secretary for Relations with States. Avdeyev described the talks as very meaty. "The sides discussed the main problems like the situation in Syria and the Middle East and analyzed the opportunities for joint efforts for a buildup of stability and the moral/ethical groundwork of international relations on the whole," he said.

"It's worthwhile recalling that more than a billion desciples of the Roman Catholic Church take account of the Pope's outlooks and the Pontiff's words serve as guidelines for them, and the value of our bilateral contacts stems from this," Avdeyev said.

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