Two priceless tapestries were badly damaged in yesterday's fire at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine, church staffers said. The tapestries, "The Last Supper" and "The Resurrection," depicted scenes from the life of Christ. They were two of a set of 12 known as the Barberini tapestries, woven under the direction of Florentine Cardinal Maffeo Barberini on papal looms in the mid-17th century. "They're among our greatest, most treasured possessions," said Jere Farrah, a vice president of public affairs at the cathedral. Yesterday afternoon, the cathedral's Textile Conservation Laboratory was trying to save whatever they could. "There's a chunk of each that's burned," said Marlene Eidelheit, director of the lab. "We're trying to see what's charred and what's salvageable." She estimated about 25 percent of "The Last Supper" had been burned, and between 25 percent and 33 percent of "The Resurrection." Only one set of tapestries was ever made from the sketches of the Christ scenes, Farrah said. The sketches were done by Giovanni Francesco Romanelli and are in Rome's Palazzo Barberini. The tapestries were a gift to the cathedral in the late 1800s. Of the dozen tapestries in the set, six were hanging in the crossing under the cathedral dome. Each measures 15 feet by 17 feet. The two that were burned were hanging on the left side while the other four were on the right, about 40 feet up, and probably sustained minor smoke damage, if any, said textile conservator Ligia Fernandez. The other six tapestries in the set were already in the conservation lab for routine work and escaped damage, she said. Yesterday afternoon, Eidelheit and her staff were busily working on the two burnt tapestries. "We want to take care of them right away," she said. "We don't want them to dry. We're trying to flush out all the smoke and debris." The lab was established in 1982 to help insure the survival of the Barberini tapestries, among others, which suffered damage from light, heat and atmospheric pollution over the centuries. The lab is now believed to be the largest textile conservation lab in the country.
Greece to build £40 million home for Elgin Marbles
Greece is planning to spend up to £40 million building a museum to house the Elgin Marbles which Britain refuses to return. An international consortium has been appointed to design the new Acropolis museum. It is a key element in Greece's effort to repatriate the antiquities which once adorned the 2,500-year-old Parthenon in Athens and are now at the British Museum in London. Dimitris Pandermalis, president of the organisation building the new museum, said construction will begin in the spring and will hopefully be ready in time for the Athens 2004 Olympics. The marbles, a 160 yard frieze consisting of 17 figures that once decorated the Parthenon, were taken in the 19th century by Lord Elgin, the British ambassador to the Ottoman Empire. http://www.ananova.com/
Art lovers shocked in Turkey
Turkey today shocked art lovers who had travelled from as far as Japan to see Picasso paintings at a national museum. Four of the five works are fakes, they admitted. The Paris-based Picasso Administration - run by the artist's son Claude Ruiz-Picasso - examined photographs of the paintings and certified them to be fakes, Turkey's Ministry of Culture said. The State Painting and Sculpture Museum in Ankara may soon close its newly refurbished Picasso room, which houses five of the eight paintings. The other three are stored in the museum's vault and not available for public viewing. The Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg, Russia, claims the originals are safely in their care. "Not only are they copies, but they are very bad copies," Mikhail Borisovich Piotrovsky, director of the Hermitage Museum, said of the paintings in Turkey. "The originals are here with us at the Hermitage where they have always been." http://www.online.ie/