Paul VI inaugurates a collection of Modern Art

On June 23, 1973, Paul VI solemnly inaugurated a collection of Modern Art in the Vatican Museum. The initial act of the event was at the Sistine Chapel where he gave a speech for around 200 persons, including 34 contemporary artists.

He affirmed that collection represented "a springtime of post-conciliar religious art," and that it expressed well the religious and the sacral. He also said the modern artist is "a prophet and a poet of today's man, his mentality and modern society." He continued, "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).

At the close of his talk, he went to visit the exposition. Above, Paul VI admiring one of its works, a large bronze statue of a nude man...