The Vatican, which launched a campaign last year to collect new contemporary religious art, says it will be sending some of those works to the Venice Biennale for the first time.

The Pontifical Council for Culture announced last summer that it would be commissioning new religious and spiritual works.

Now, it says some of those works will be featured in next year's Venice Biennale — an art extravaganza that lasts from the spring to fall in Venice — according to the Independent newspaper.

The Vatican Museums hold a vast collection of art and sculpture, attracting more than four million visitors annually.

The collection was started in 1506, when the Vatican bought the Laocoon, a marble sculpture of a Trojan from antiquity.

A collection of modern and contemporary religious art was added in 1973, and among the modern artists represented are Giorgio de Chirico and Henri Matisse.

"We are trying to get a dialogue up and running between the church and contemporary art — particularly artists at the highest level," said Monsignor Gianfranco Ravasi, the president of the Pontifical Council, told the Independent.

"The [current] artworks are not at the same level as the buildings."

Participation in the Biennale marks an about-face for the Vatican, which has previously denounced the event as "the breakdown of art in modern times."

The event, now in its 65th year, celebrates avant-garde art, film, dance, architecture, theatre and music.