New York Metropolitan Museum Of Art Devotes Exhibit To Sacred

[Andrew Galanakis]

CNN TODAY

March 4, 1997; Tuesday 2:54 pm Eastern Time

New York Metropolitan Museum Of Art Devotes Exhibit To Sacred
Religious Images

Bob Cain, Bobbie Battista, Mary Ann McGann

Forbidden art, crafted in one of history's golden ages, is the subject of
an
unprecedented exhibit in New York City. In many cases, the story behind
the
exhibit is as powerful as the images on display.

BOBBIE BATTISTA, CNN ANCHOR: Forbidden art, crafted in one of history's
golden ages, is the subject of an unprecedented exhibit in New York City.

BOB CAIN, CNN ANCHOR: CNN's Mary Ann McGann reports, the story behind
the
exhibit is as powerful as the images on display.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARY ANN McGANN, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Sacred religious
images like
these were once banned in early Byzantine history; many were destroyed.
Other
icons were rescued and hidden primarily by monks. When it was decided in
the
year 803 that icons were worthy of veneration, a second golden age of the
Byzantine Empire was ushered in.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You are standing and looking at me as I stand in
front a
superb mosaic...

McGANN (voice-over): That golden age, stretching from the mid 9th to
the mid
13th century, is the subject of an expansive new exhibit at New York's
Metropolitan Museum of Art.

PHILIPPE DE MONTEBELLO, DIRECTOR, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: It's
quite
literally epic-making. It's in my 20 years as director, having organized
more
than 400 exhibitions, by far the most challenging and the most important
that I
have inaugurated.

McGANN (voice-over): That's because the Metropolitan assembled more
than 350
works of art from major museums and monasteries in 24 countries. Many
pieces
are so fragile and valuable, they are off limits to the glare of TV camera
lights.

DE MONTEBELLO: In many instances, especially from the very remote
monasteries, many of these works have actually never left the walls, the
precincts of the place for which they were made close to a thousand years
ago.

McGANN (voice-over): The Byzantine Empire encompassed what is now
modern-day
Greece, Turkey, Bulgaria, Syria the Ukraine and other countries. Those
nations have contributed pieces to the exhibit, like this mosaic of the
Deacon
Stephen from Kiev, or this gold and enamel necklace also from Kiev with
its
pearls and precious stones.

There is the 10th century icon of Saint Eudokia from Istanbul, Turkey,
made
of marble and colored glass. And the icon of Saint Andrew; the only
surviving
fragment from a series that adorned the Church of Saint Theodore in
Greece in
the early 12th century.

There are also ornately carved ivory pieces and glittering gold and
silver.

WILLIAM WIXOM, CO-CURATOR, METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART: The processional
cross
-- the crosses, they're wonderful works in silver and silver gilt.

McGANN (voice-over): The exhibit, which opens March 11th, took four
years to
assemble, because many of the works had never been loaned before. And it
took
more than 1000 years for a worldwide political climate flexible enough to
permit
such an undertaking.

Mary Ann McGann, CNN, New York.