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Replacement plaques handed over in Orkney

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Hand-carved replacements for the three plaques stolen from Orkney’s Italian Chapel have been delivered to the islands.

The theft from the historic church in August caused outrage.

Attempts to recover the original plaques have so far proved fruitless, and the custodians of the wartime chapel commissioned replacements.

They were carved in the same small village in the north of Italy as the originals.

They were created by Ivo Braito, a wood carver in Moena in the Dolomites, using detailed photographs of the stolen plaques as well as a forth original plaque which was sent to Italy as a guide.

John Muir, secretary of the Italian Chapel Preservation Committee, said: “It’s very special to get them all complete again. It was such a despicable thing for anyone to do in the first place and it’s great to have the set complete.

“They have matched them up remarkably well. I sent them out with an existing plaque so that they could get the dimensions and colours but when we do get them back up on the walls it will be hard to tell the difference.

“We are looking now to instal CCTV cameras to make the building more secure and have full-time custodians there and possibly charge admissions, depending on how many people we get in the summer.”

The plaques depict the journey of Christ to the cross and are individually numbered with Roman numerals.

They were gifted to the islands by Domenico Chiocchetti, an Italian prisoner of war who designed the church at Lamb Holm during World War II.

It was his daughter, Letizia, who organised for the three plaques to be remade.

They were brought back to Scotland by Mr Muir’s friends, Phillip and Catherine Paris.

The couple happened to be in Italy at the time they were being finished, having booked a holiday there months ago.

Mr Braito was trained by the man who made the original 14 Stations of the Cross, which were gifted to the chapel in 1964.

He also knew Mr Chiocchetti, who was a decorator of sacred carvings until his retirement in 1976 and who stained the plaques given to the chapel.

The three recently made plaques were stained by Giuseppe Mich from Tesero who, by coincidence, visited Orkney with his local choir only a few years ago.