Parthenon fragments in Vatican museums to be returned to Greece

Pope Francis has agreed to return fragments of the Parthenon sculptures to Greece (Andrew Medichini/AP)

Pope Francis has decided to send back to Greece the three fragments of Parthenon sculptures that the Vatican museums have held for centuries.

The Vatican termed the gesture a “donation” from the pope to His Beatitude Ieronymos II, the Orthodox Christian archbishop of Athens and all Greece, “as a concrete sign of his sincere desire to follow in the ecumenical path of truth”.