Getty to display religious icons from Mt. Sinai
A Byzantine monastery will loan 53 objects for a fall showing called "the experience of a lifetime" by one organizer.
By Suzanne Muchnic, Times Staff Writer

In a feat of international diplomacy and long-term planning, the J. Paul Getty Museum has arranged to bring a trove of Byzantine devotional objects from an Egyptian monastery to Los Angeles. Fifty-three objects from the Holy Monastery of St. Catherine at Mt. Sinai — home of the world's finest collection of Byzantine icons and manuscripts — will go on view Nov. 14 in an exclusive 16-week engagement at the Getty Center.

The exhibition, "Holy Image, Hallowed Ground: Icons From Sinai," will be the first to focus solely on the Greek Orthodox monastery, said Father Justin Sinaites, librarian at St. Catherine's, in an interview in Los Angeles. The museum will present 43 icons — including small, jewel-like panels; 4-foot-tall doors bearing portraits of saints; and 15-foot-long architectural beams painted with biblical narratives — along with six manuscripts, three metal pieces and a liturgical textile. The works will be installed in a setting designed to illuminate their devotional roles and evoke the ambience of the monastery, he said. the rest