Gary Vikan
There is always a backstory, perhaps simple, perhaps shocking, to the amazing objects and artworks in our favorite museums. The story may be displayed in the notecard alongside, or not. There may be too much story to tell.
Gary Vikan, a specialist in sacred objects of the Byzantine era, who has been chief curator and director of the Walters Art Museum in Baltimore, has written a book about some of the shadier backstories of extraordinary objects and exhibitions he has worked with in his long and distinguished career.
Sacred and Stolen: Confessions of a Museum Director is a series of loosely related detective stories. In his investigations of sacred objects of unholy provenance, Vikan reveals much about what goes on backstage at a museum and the morally gray pathways by which museum pieces sometimes arrive on the pedestals and shelves of the hot new exhibition.
READ FULL ARTICLE HERE
