Collection of Collezione Vaticana d'Arte Religiosa Moderna


On June 23, 1973 Pope Paul VI inaugurated The Collection of Modern Religious Art to the Vatican Museums saying "If this present artistic collection shows us that religious values were freely and suitably expressed, we are happy and full of hope" (L'Osservatore Romano, June 24, 1973, pp. 1-2).  It is comprised of hundreds of paintings, sculptures, engravings and designs gathered in a collection dedicated to the nineteeth century and contemporary art.  The pieces have been donated to the Holy See by artists as well as private collectors. 

There are over 500 works signed by 250 artists exhibited in 55 different rooms including the Apartment of Alexander VI, in the first floor of the Apostolic Palace, two floors of the Salette Borgia, a series of rooms below the Sistine Chapel, and a series of rooms on the ground floor.  The collection includes works by Vincent Van Gogh, Ottone Rosai, Auguste Rodin, Carlo Carrà, Mario Sironi, Aligi Sassu, Renato Guttuso, Marc Chagall, Paul Gauguin, Maurice Utrillo, Giorgio Morandi, Filippo de Pisis, Henry Moore, Paul Klee, Wassily Kandinsky, Georges Braque, Umberto Boccioni, Giacomo Balla, Giorgio De Chirico, Jacques Villon, Bernard Buffet, Oskar Kokoschka, Pablo Picasso, Francis Bacon, Diego Velasquez, Salvador Dali, and more.

The Vatican Museums are usually open for the public each weekday morning and in the early afternoon during the summer.  The last Sunday of each month the museums offer free admission.  Vatican Museums are closed on all church holidays.


1889 Pietà (after Delacroix), The Painting Pietà-(after-Delacroix),-The





Interior of a Restaurant in Arles Orchard with Blossoming Apricot Trees Outskirts of Paris near Montmartre View of The Hague with the New Church
Interior of a Restaurant in Arles Orchard with Blossoming Apricot Trees Outskirts of Paris near Montmartre View of The Hague with the New Church
"We spend our whole lives in unconscious exercise of the art of expressing our thoughts with the help of words."