BRIVIESCA, Spain (AFP) — Two excommunicated Spanish nuns who have joined a sect were held for allegedly selling cultural assets belonging to the Catholic Church from a convent they refuse to leave, a court said on Friday.

The women belong to a group of nine nuns from the Order of Saint Clare who split from the Vatican in May 2024 over a property dispute and doctrinal wrangling, an affair that has fascinated Spain.

The Archbishopric of Burgos asked them to leave their 15th-century convent in the northern town of Belorado, saying they had no legal right to remain there after the excommunication.

But the nuns stayed put after a court ordered them out earlier this year. They say the convent belongs to them and have appealed their eviction.

A court in the nearby town of Briviesca said it had “ordered the provisional release of the two former nuns” detained on Thursday, who are under investigation “for misappropriation of cultural heritage assets”.

The Civil Guard police force has also released an antiquarian suspected of having received the items, the court added.

El Pais daily reported that the Civil Guard had searched the convent “to clarify if the former nuns had irregularly sold pieces of sacred art”.

In a statement read out on social media on Thursday, the nuns said: “We have committed no crime, and we have nothing to hide.”

The women have declared allegiance to an excommunicated ultra-conservative priest who has rejected the validity of all popes since the death of Pius XII in 1958. The Church considers the movement a sect.