Do you apply this to Monastery Icons as well? What would your take be regarding a Latin Rite Catholic displaying Monastery Icons a)unblessed by a Latin Rite priest, and b)blessed by a Latin Rite priest.
I was thinking SPECIFICALLY about Monastery Icons when i said this. I realize they have a rather spotted reputation (to put it sweetly), but any spiritual taint they have will be removed by the blessing of a priest, be he Latin, Melkite, Chaldean, Orthodox, or Non-Chalcedonian.
Many say that it is not necessary to have icons blessed; their sanctity derives from their prototype (as St. Basil says), and the prototype of all holiness is God Himself. It is a pious custom in many places, however, to have icons blessed by placing them in the altar area of an Orthodox (or Byzantine) Church for a while, or having the traditional prayers of sanctification read over them. (A custom I prefer to follow.)
Obviously, no such blessing should be given until after they are sold.
However awful they might be artistically (and they look terribly cartoony to me), the products of Monastery Icons at least are based on traditional prototypes.
Lentz’s pictures, OTOH, are NOT. His “St. Martin Luther King”, “Christ the Liberator”, “Madonna of the Oppressed” and the like are at best political statements; at worst prelest (spiritual delusion) in paint.