Zaragoza - Spanish police have retrieved the skull of Pope Benedict XIII (1394-1423), which was stolen from a private museum in the northern village of Savinan five months ago, officials said on Wednesday.

Police detained two brothers, aged 19 and 23, who had attempted to extort a million pesetas (about R35 500) from the village council in exchange for returning the relic. The disappearance of the skull, which is valued at 50 million pesetas, had shocked the entire village.

The house where the skull was kept could be identified on the basis of photographs which the thieves sent to the mayor, police said.

The relic was stolen from the chapel of a 16th-century aristocratic palace which served as a museum and where security was poor, according to police.

Spanish Pope Benedict XIII, one of the four rebel popes who had their seat in the French city of Avignon in the 14th and 15th centuries, was declared a heretic by Pope Alexander V. - Sapa-DP