Museum of Biblical Art raises its profile amid array of challenges
David Van Biema | Jun 20, 2012
NEW YORK (RNS) When art historian Bruce Boucher wanted to reunite the three panels of a huge 14th-century altarpiece from three different countries, the Italian lender of one of the pieces had one condition: the finished product had to be shown at a big-city museum.
"And of course," said Boucher, director of the University of Virginia Art Museum, "I immediately thought of MOBiA."
It was a high compliment to the small institution in a city that's awash in better-known art museums, and to Ena Heller, the Romanian emigrant with a Ph.D. in art history who has led the Museum of Biblical Art as its founding director for the past 15 years.
The exhibit featuring the triptych, "The Adoration of the Magi by Bartolo di Fredi: A Masterpiece Reconstructed," is the latest in a string of unexpected successes for MOBiA, which has hosted well-received exhibits ranging from a collection of Peruvian folk art to masterpieces by Marc Chagall to a recent collection of wartime Bibles.
http://www.religionnews.com/culture/arts-and-media/Museum-of-Biblical-Art-raises-its-profile-amid-uncertain-future
http://mobia.org/exhibitions/adoration-of-the-magi-by-bartolo-di-fredi-a-masterpiece-reconstructed#slideshow1
