Statue of Hercules. What astounded me was the open-mindedness of the past popes that collected all this art. They were actually pretty liberal in collecting all kinds of art known to the civilised world at that time, everything from pagan Greek and Etruscan art to stuff from Egypt. I'm a Christian, but would I buy a buddha statue and put it in my house for the art of it? Probably not, but this is kinda like what they did.

The popes had this thing called the "humanist traditions" of truth, goodness and beauty that they advocated, and made an effort not to white-wash the cultures of the people and lands that subsequently became Christian. In those times, the papacy had an almost monopolistic hold on the art of the times, perhaps directly or indirectly because of the above reasons. How advanced. That was real marketplace before the term came up. Let's follow suit and take the marketplace for the Lord!