Vatican detains ex-employee who allegedly tried to sell back manuscript of Bernini’s basilica canopy

ROME (AP) — Vatican police have detained a former employee on charges of attempted extortion after he allegedly tried to sell a 17th-century gilded manuscript describing Bernini’s designs for the altar canopy of St. Peter’s Basilica back to the Holy See.

Vatican prosecutors said that the 18-page manuscript, which apparently contains the first known specifications for the gilding of the baldacchino canopy, had disappeared from the basilica archives.

The person implicated had worked for the Fabbrica di San Pietro...