Head of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, Archbishop of Westminster, Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor Kormak (Cormac Murphy-O'Connor) called on the London National Gallery (National Gallery) to return the painting of Piero della Francesca «Baptism of Christ» Church in , reported The Times.

According to the Cardinal, the picture is a «product of faith», rather than art, and should therefore serve the purpose for which it was created - to call people in the church a sense of awe and help them pray.

written on the tree picture is easily susceptible to destruction, therefore, stored in a museum, with special temperature conditions. Because of the fragile state of the National Gallery will never give it to exhibitions in other museums. The curator of the department of Italian art Sayson Luke (Luke Syson) argues that the faithful visitors, no one forbids praying in front of the picture in the museum: a small room, where she is, like a chapel. According to the National Gallery, the church will not be able to work to ensure adequate levels of safety: steal it from the church will be much easier than from the museum.

painting «The Baptism of Christ» was written by Piero della Francesca in the 1450's as part of the altar of John the Baptist Church in his native city artist Borgo San Sepolkro.

The National Gallery painting has been a museum since its purchase in 1861.

Sources: lenta.ru , timesonline.co.uk , artinvestment.ru