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PROVO — The Brigham Young University's Museum of Art will open a new Christ-centered exhibit called "Sacred Gifts" on Friday.
The exhibit highlights 20 paintings depicting the life of Christ that have never been shown together, including paintings by Carl Bloch, Heinrich Hofmann and Franz Schwartz. Some of the paintings have never even been outside the countries, churches or museums where they are housed.
The title of the exhibition comes from the Bible, but it also speaks to the artists who were all men of faith.
Bringing the paintings to Provo was no easy task. It took curators at the MOA two years to convince parish councils of churches in Germany, Denmark and Sweden that the paintings would come to no harm in the exhibit.
Inger-Marie Dahl, a member of the parish council of Ordrup Kirke, Denmark, at first said members of her congregation felt that their church is not a museum.
"In the end, we did loan the picture because the view prevails that it should be seen in its original by the people who come here," Dahl said.
Riverside Church in New York City is the home of Hofmann's "Christ in Gethsemane." That congregation also said "no" at first saying they were a bit skeptical of the LDS church. However, the church eventually agreed with the view of building a positive relationship with other congregations that center on Christ.
"I felt in my heart that I was called to make sure this relationship blossomed," said Riverside Church council member Karen McVoy Stone. "We're brothers and sisters in Christ. Christ is the center of it all."
Perhaps the most challenging request was for some paintings that are permanently installed in special paneling in Frederiksborg Castle in Denmark.
Curators had heard that the paintings will never leave the castle again, but the success of the Bloch exhibit three years ago opened the door for their trip to Utah.
"We were quite surprised that you had more than 300,000 visitors. We have 200,000 a year at Frederiksborg Castle where we have all the 23 paintings," said Henning Fode, private secretary to Queen Margrethe II of Denmark and Chairman of the Board of the Museum of Natural History.
However, the paintings aren't just beautiful 19th Century works of art. They are gifts of goodwill from people of faith from other parts of the country and around the world to people of faith in Utah.
The "Sacred Gifts" exhibition will open to the public at the MOA at BYU November 15 through May 10, 2014.
