Nuns light candles during the Catholic Washing of the Feet ceremony during Easter Holy Week in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem's Old City on March 28, 2024. (Photo by Ronen Zvulun/Reuters)

A relic hunter dubbed “Indiana Bones” has lifted the lid on a macabre collection of 400-year-old jewel-encrusted skeletons unearthed in churches across Europe. Art historian Paul Koudounaris has hunted down and photographed dozens of gruesome skeletons in some of the world's most secretive religious establishments. Photo: Albertus in the church of St George in Burgrain, Germany. Incredibly, some of the skeletons, which took up to five years to decorate, were even found hidden away in lock-ups and containers. (Photo by Paul Koudounaris/BNPS)

A visitor takes a photo of a boulder plastic made of synthetic material called “To be in Limbo” hangs from the ceiling of the 20 meter high Jesuit Church in Vienna, Austria, Tuesday, November 25, 2014. The eight meter high, hollow and 700 kilogram heavy sculpture from the artists group Steinbrener/Dempf and Huber is supposed to symbolize faith and its threatening moments. The installation will remain until April 19, 2015 and then move to a church in Hamburg, Germany. (Photo by Ronald Zak/AP Photo)

A woman takes pictures as she stands on the top of a Greek Orthodox Church while the sun sets in the Aegean Sea, in Santorini, Greece's Cyclades island, on Wednesday, June 15, 2022. (Photo by Petros Giannakouris/AP Photo)

Relatives mourn during the funeral of Baptist church minister Andre Tessono, who was killed during 7.2 magnitude earthquake hit the area 8 days ago, in the Picot neighborhood in Les Cayes, Haiti, Sunday, August 22, 2021. (Photo by Matias Delacroix/AP Photo)

Handguns turned in from the public as part of the “Gun Turn-in” event where a $100 gift card is given for every firearm and a $10 gift card for each BB-gun, air-gun, or replica firearm turned over to police at Universal Missionary Baptist Church in Chicago, Illinois, U.S. May 28, 2016. (Photo by Jim Young/Reuters)

A view of children mannequins wrapped in purple and white barricade tape placed in front of the Cologne Cathedral, installed there by German artist Dennis Josef Meseg, called “Shattered Souls – in a Sea of Silence”, to protest against the abuse scandals in the Catholic Church in Cologne, Germany on August 3, 2023. (Photo by Wolfgang Rattay/Reuters)

A child dressed in a Santa Claus costume reacts, on the day Palestinian Christians attend an Orthodox Christmas Mass at the Greek Orthodox Saint Porphyrius Church, amid the ongoing conflict between Israel and Hamas, in Gaza City on January 7, 2025. (Photo by Dawoud Abu Alkas/Reuters)