This department encompasses the collections of Christian antiquities housed in the Lateran Palace until 1963. The Curator is Dr. Umberto Utro, and the Assistant is Dr. Alessandro Vella. The collection was founded by Pius IX in 1854. Previously, in 1852, Pius IX set up the Commission for Christian Archaeology given the task of “conducting excavations in the catacombs and assuming responsibility for their maintenance.” The monuments which could not be preserved on site, were transferred to this museum where they could be suitably protected and appreciated. The exhibition was arranged by Father Giuseppe Marchi and Giovanni Battista De Rossi. It originally consisted of two sections: the first, Pius Christian Museum, devoted to sculptures, mosaics and architectural fragments. The second, Christian Lapidary, was devoted to inscriptions. The first section is the only one open to public as a whole, and it places special emphasis on the countless collection of the early Christian sarcophagi. Moreover, the latter are arranged by subject and type. The second section contains historical inscriptions pertaining to public monuments and places of worship, poems of Pope Damasus I, tomb inscriptions with significant public dates, or those pertaining to various Christian dogmas, or the ecclesiastical hierarchy, and inscriptions accompanied by symbols. This second section can be visited upon prior request. A third section – the Jewish Lapidary – was added in 1914 and is completely open to the public. It is the most important collection It is the most important collection of inscriptions from an ancient Jewish community of the Diaspora and contains hundreds of sepulchral inscriptions and contains hundreds of sepulchral inscriptions, mainly from the Roman Jewish catacomb of Monteverde.