Handle Sacred Objects with Care

Handle Sacred Objects with Care
AP Photo/Ashwini Bhatia

A large Byzantine cross flying wildly around on the neck of a singer in a rock video. A trendy kabbala bracelet flaunted by a movie star on the red carpet. A bodhisattva statue displayed in the bathroom or the bedroom of an art collector. An entire room decorated in aboriginal burial art of various traditions from different parts of the world. A museum where one can see art from five different traditions in the span of five minutes.All of these are examples of sacred art displayed out of their intended context. In recent years, the museum world has been rocked by controversy about the appropriate conservation, display, and use of sacred art, and museum professionals are starting to use the term "culturally significant" to refer to values in a work that go beyond the aesthetic or utilitarian — values that many curators and conservators believe must be respected. Moreover, many people who are not museum professionals — who simply find an object compelling or attractive — wonder about how to regard and how to care for a work of sacred art.

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