(RCSD) Psst! wanna see my Michelangelo?

A FYI for Aussie viewers.
Screening on Auntie 9:20pm tomorrow.

"Would you like to see my Michelangelo?"
It was that invitation from a priest in a remote Italian monastery
that prompted this story by reporter Anne Maria Nicholson.

"I was expecting to see a drawing. I was bowled over when the riest
led me inside the church and showed me a two-metre igh marble
sculpture of a naked Jesus Christ", Nicholson said.

Nicholson was paying a social visit to Father Cletus who currently
runs a Monastery in the historic village of Bassano Romano, two hours
west of Rome, but who used to be based at Sydney's St Patricks
Seminary in Manly .

For 400 years, the monastery has housed the sculpture of Jesus Christ.
But it wasn't until four years ago that questions were asked about its
provenance and it was proven to be a Michelangelo.

"This turned out to be one of those great art mysteries," Nicholson
said. "Scholars knew it existed but didn't know where it had gone. It
was discovered by chance when an arts history student was doing an
inventory of all the artworks in the
church. It had been put out of sight in the sacristy so no-one had
seen it for decades."

Nicholson follows the trail of the sculpture, from
Michelangelo's workplace in Rome's Borgo area, to the Monastery of San
Vincenzo de Matire in the Italian countryside. She also reveals why,
despite its beauty, Michelangelo abandoned this work when it was so
close to completion.

The story of Jesus on stamps:
http://cjoint.com/data/iuggnRDg7H.htm
(large 274Kb)
16 images of a 32 image set (cinderellas)

Remaining images posted on request.