Dr. Forti and Christopher Hyland with a copy of the Aperture book with an
Armstrong image on the cover, a gift for his Holiness Benedict XVI
This author briefly met Dr. Antonio Paolucci, Director of
the Vatican Museums, at and just after an unplanned,
chance encounter at the Museums' extensive restoration
workrooms. I rather like the accompanying photograph
which I took of him, ascending a service staircase
of his domain, an almost abstract figure, perhaps a
presentiment of artistic things to come, things germinating
and therefore transforming the Vatican Museums. Dr.
Paolucci, Monsignor Nicolini, Dr. Forti and hundreds
of others work tirelessly, out of love and devotion, to
sustain this patrimony of global importance. They toil
for the benefit of all. Theirs is a difficult task, working
against forces seeking to ossify, to exclude and divert
efforts from intended purpose: there is much to change,
much to do.
One could imagine at the Vatican, exhibitions that
weave interests at the heart of the Church and the new
Pontiff: the plight of the poor, consumerism, respect for
nature, the inclusion of everyone in the Church's spiritual
embrace and the cultivation, individual and collective, of
HYLAND
