Vatican authorities were searching yesterday for the left
hand – the one holding the keys – of a 13th-century marble statue of the apostle
in St Peter’s Basilica after the hand and keys mysteriously vanished.
The marble statue is dated between 1285-1290 and is attributed to Arnolfo
di Cambio, the same artist to whom many scholars attribute the more famous
bronze statue of St. Peter seated in the central nave of the basilica.
The statue with the missing hand was restored in the late 1700s, and the stolen
hand was a replacement copy of the damaged original, an official at the basilica
said.
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