SACRED SILVER AND STAINED GLASS GALLERY
at the Victoria and Albert Museum
London, 22nd November 2005
As a part of a gradual restoration of the permanent display, a gallery was opened on 22nd November at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, dedicated to the most important objects made of sacred silver and stained glass and connected with various religious rituals and sacral architecture from the Middle ages until today. The exhibition was opened by the Bishop of Oxford The Rev Richard Harries in front of five hundred people, many of whom were representatives of various religious communities in the UK. Director of the Museum Mr Mark Jones pointed out in his speech, that one of the most interesting exhibits shown in the gallery was the Shrine of St Simeon, an exact copy of the medieval shrine in Zadar, Croatia. Another speaker at the opening was Mr Michael Gettleson, Director of the Whiteley Charitable Trust which donated million and six hundred pounds for this project.
SACRED SILVER AND STAINED GLASS GALLERY
at the Victoria and Albert Museum
London, 22nd November 2005
As a part of a gradual restoration of the permanent display, a gallery was opened on 22nd November at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London, dedicated to the most important objects made of sacred silver and stained glass and connected with various religious rituals and sacral architecture from the Middle ages until today. The exhibition was opened by the Bishop of Oxford The Rev Richard Harries in front of five hundred people, many of whom were representatives of various religious communities in the UK. Director of the Museum Mr Mark Jones pointed out in his speech, that one of the most interesting exhibits shown in the gallery was the Shrine of St Simeon, an exact copy of the medieval shrine in Zadar, Croatia. Another speaker at the opening was Mr Michael Gettleson, Director of the Whiteley Charitable Trust which donated million and six hundred pounds for this project.
The presence of the Shrine of St Simeon in the largest museum of arts and crafts in the world is enormously important for the promotion of the Croatian art in the world. It is one of the first and definitely the largest exhibit that the visitors see upon entering the gallery. Mrs Flora Turner, Cultural Attache at the Croatian Embassy in London, has been negotiating with the Museum the presentation of this object for years.
The Shrine, which was made for the Museum by the British company Elkington, has been owned by the Museum since 1894, but it has been included in the permanent display only now. The original is the work of the jeweller Franjo from Milano (1377-1380) and Toma Martinov from Zadar (1497). It is kept in the Church of St Simeon in Zadar and it was ordered by queen Elizabeth, wife of king Ludovic I, The Great, so that the body of St Simeon can be deposited in it.
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