Relics in art museums?!

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Laura_Elizabeth

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I was recently at an art museum in Cleveland, Ohio. I was looking at the collection of Early Christian art, and I was enjoying it. I was looking at a collection of (opaque) reliquaries and wondering where the relics were now, when I came to a reliquary that I could see into that obviously contained what looked to be a piece of bone. I thought that surely it could not be real, they would not put a relic in an art museum, but it was real! :eek: I do not know how many of the other reliquaries also still contained relics.
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 Shouldn't these relics be in a church somewhere to be venerated?  I had no idea how to respond to this.  It is illegal for artifacts from Native American tombs to be in museums, yet RELICS are in an art museum????  Is it just me, or is this crazy?  Is it common for this kind of thing to happen?  

 What can, or should, be done about something like this?
 
IMO, relics are very special and should be in a Church or at the very least in a private home of an individual with a special devotion to the person. I do not think a museum is a good place for a relic. JMO. :eek:
 
As someone who lives in Cleveland, I must say we have a fabulous and FREE museum, don’t we?

Illuminated manuscripts… they get me every time. As for your question, I have no idea. Just wanted to comment as I love our museum 🙂

Something to add… did you happen to notice if the piece belonged to the museum or if it was on loan? Often times you’ll find pieces such as those on loan from another museum, or even from the Vatican. About 10 years ago the museum did have a Vatican exhibit. Honestly I’m not sure.

Ah… another edit… see this article from 2010 cleveland.com/arts/index.ssf/2010/10/treasures_of_heaven_exhibition.html

Now, it is possible that they still have pieces on loan.

Edit: Here’s another article about Treasure of Heaven. Some of the pieces are indeed on loan from the Vatican: timeshighereducation.co.uk/story.asp?storycode=416609

Ah Hah! Here is probably what you saw:

post-gazette.com/stories/ae/art-architecture/saintly-yet-secular-cleveland-museum-exhibit-of-135-relics-examines-their-significance-in-the-history-of-art–193182/?print=1

That one is recent.
 
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