A few years back we reported on the book As the Ancient Chronicles Relate, which gathers together examples of Renaissance paintings that include depictions of "strange objects in the sky", many of which look distinctly like UFOs.

Glorification of the Eucharist (pictured above) by Bonaventura Salimbeni (1567-1613) stood out as the oddest painting in the book. Jesus and God the Father sit at the top of the scene, clasping the 'antennae' of a metallic sphere that looks like a Russian Sputnik, and a camera lens seems to be pointing down from the orb. While there are religious and historical reasons for the sphere and its sceptres to appear this way, it still makes for a delightfully surreal scenario.

The painting is now under threat however, as the church in which it is housed is in a bad state of repair.