Expo Osaka 2025, the Holy See will bring Caravaggio's "Deposition" to Japan

Today, at the press conference to mark the 70th anniversary of the magazine Interni in Milan, the Pro-Prefect of the Dicastery for Evangelization, Archbishop Rino Fisichella announced that the Holy See will bring Caravaggio's painting "The Deposition" to Osaka for Expo 2025.

“The Holy See will have a dedicated section within the Italian pavilion, and we are particularly grateful to Italy for this collaboration,” said Archbishop Fisichella. “Caravaggio painted his ‘Deposition’ [Jesus being taken down from the cross] at the beginning of 1600, and the work is housed in the Vatican Museums. It will be a great joy for us to bring it to Osaka for the six months of Expo."

The motto of the Italian pavilion at the Exhibition will be ‘Art generates life’.

“The Holy See wanted to give continuity to this motto, and so our sector will have as its motto La Bellezza porta Speranza - ‘Beauty brings hope’. We have played here on the meanings of the word porta [In Italian the noun ‘porta’ means ‘door’ and the verb ‘porta’ means ‘brings’].

On 24 December this year we will open the Holy Door which will mark the start of the ordinary Jubilee of 2025, for which we expect around 32 million pilgrims to come to Rome. This is why we decided to link Osaka to the Holy Year. Beauty leads to that hope that the world today craves in a very particular way."

Hope, is also the theme that the Pope chose for the Jubilee, with the motto "Pilgrims of Hope".

Also present at the conference, in the Aula Magna of the University of Milan, were Mario Vattani, Ambassador and General Commissioner for Italy at Expo 2025 Osaka, and Satoshi Suzuki, the Japanese Ambassador to Italy.