Vatican Museums

On 20 September, the Vatican Museums attended in Beijing the first edition of the three-day event Silk Road International Cultural Expo: an important annual appointment for the “promotion of the cultural exchanges between nations and regions along the Silk Road, with the spirit of the ancient caravan route of peace and cooperation, openness and integration, mutual knowledge and mutual benefit”.
Represented by Msgr. Paolo Nicolini, Managing Director, and by Fr. Nicola Mapelli, curator of the Ethnological Museums, the Pope’s Museums demonstrated how artistic beauty in all its expressive forms may unite the peoples of the earth in a single great embrace. Tangible signs of this renewed openness and reciprocal recognition were offered by, on the symbolic day of Friday 21 October, the concert of popular Chinese music at the Guangzhou Opera House and the calligraphic works of the artist Cui Zimo: a meaningful gift that further enriches the already great gift of Pope Francis, of opening to the public the entire Apostolic Palace of Castel Gandolfo.