New York : the Terra Sancta Museum moves to the Frick Collection !
From October 1, 2025, the Frick Collection will host the exhibition “To the Holy Sepulcher: treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum”. The driving force behind this ambitious project is Xavier Salomon, Deputy Director and Chief Curator of one of New York’s most prestigious museums dedicated to European art. We had the honor of meeting him in Jerusalem during one of his preparatory visits to the exhibition.
Xavier Salomon Hello, how did you hear about the Franciscans and the Terra Sancta Museum?
In 2018, I visited Jerusalem for the first time as a tourist. In 2022, a Parisian art dealer invited me to a conference given by Friar Stéphane Milovitch at the Cercle Interallied in Paris. Intrigued by this museum project, I went along. After the lecture, I asked him if he had ever considered taking these treasures to the United States of America (USA). Friar Stéphane was immediately receptive and proposed that I come to Jerusalem to examine the objects together. The project was born. I’ve been there several times since.
Why was it important to come to Jerusalem?
Jerusalem represents a fundamental center for Christianity and the West, a place where religious history comes to life. Beyond the logistical considerations of measuring certain objects, I really wanted to take advantage of this opportunity to observe these objects in their living context, particularly during Holy Week at the Holy Sepulchre. What seems essential to me with this collection is the way in which these works of art, while being major creations, are deeply integrated into a religious life. It is in this sense that I describe them as “living objects”. Their survival over the centuries is a direct result of their continued use.
To exhibit these objects in New York is to offer the public an opportunity to understand this duality: these are masterpieces that also have a profound spiritual and religious significance. This is an aspect that deserves to be explained, especially in a context like New York, where audiences are very diverse, both religiously and culturally.
How did you go about preparing the exhibition “To the Holy Sepulchre: treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum”?
It was made easier by the fact that all the objects came from the same place. Usually, for an exhibition, you must borrow objects from different museums, which means managing relationships with numerous institutions. But here, everything comes from the Terra Sancta Museum, which simplifies logistics. Of course, there have been challenges linked to the geopolitical situation, the pandemic, the war, but overall, communication has been fluid and it’s been a real pleasure to work on this project with the Franciscans.
I was also lucky enough to collaborate with two French experts who are co-curators of the exhibition. Jacques Charles-Gaffiot, an art historian specializing in iconography, and Benoît Constensoux, an art historian at Galerie Kugel in Paris. These experts, who know the works perfectly, are members of the museum’s Scientific Committee and have already designed exhibitions in Europe around the same collection. With their help, we were able to select the most representative objects from the Terra Sancta Museum collection and link them to other European works of art in the Frick Collection.
What makes this exhibition such a major event on the New York cultural scene?
The exhibition “To the Holy Sepulchre: treasures from the Terra Sancta Museum” is the first major project in our new spaces, following the museum’s reopening after 5 years of renovation and refurbishment. This is a major event, not only for the Frick, but also for New York’s cultural scene. We hope it will attract a wide audience, and that it will be a unique opportunity for many to discover these rare objects and learn more about this fascinating religious and artistic history.
We will be presenting unique objects that have never left Jerusalem for the USA. This will come as a great surprise to the public, even to art historians, as only a handful of scholars and experts are aware of their existence. The American public will be fascinated to discover this collection.
We warmly congratulate Xavier Salomon on his appointment as director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, and look forward to continuing our joint adventures, with the ambition of strengthening the collaboration between our two institutions.
