Vatican receives ransom demand for stolen Michelangelo letters

A thief who stole two rare documents written by the artist Michelangelo has offered to return them to the Vatican's archives for cash, a spokesman for the Holy See revealed on Monday.

Confirming the 1997 theft of the papers for the first time, the spokesman said the offer was made recently to a top Church official, Cardinal Angelo Comastri.

"Naturally, as we are talking about stolen documents, the cardinal refused," the spokesman said.

The Vatican did not divulge any further details about the offer or explain why the theft had not been made public when the documents initially disappeared nearly two decades ago.

But according to a Sunday report by the Rome newspaper Il Messaggero, the thief — described as a former Vatican employee — had asked for 100,000 euros, or $108,539.

The missing items are a letter signed by Michelangelo and a document he is believed to have written.

They formed part of a large archive of the Vatican department that looks after the upkeep of St. Peter's Basilica, the largest church in Christendom.

The archive contains numerous documents concerning the history, design and construction of basilica. It took more than 100 years to build and was completed in 1626.

Michelangelo, who was an architect and engineer as well as a sculptor and painter, was brought in to oversee the church's construction in 1547.

Although he died in 1564, he is considered one of the principal architects of a building that has become to many a major symbol of the Roman Catholic Church.

Al Jazeera and wire services