The two most popular museum exhibitions of 2018 featured Catholic art

In 2018 the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York hosted the two most popular art exhibitions in the world – and they both had a distinctly Catholic flavor.

“Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” was visited by almost 1.7 million people, breaking the museum’s previous record set by “Treasures of King Tutankhamen,” according to a report in The Art Newspaper. The exhibit featured ecclesiastical garments and items borrowed from the Vatican, along with a display of the museum’s own collection of religious art.

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Taking second place, “Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer” was seen by 702,516 people. That exhibit featured the great master’s drawings, sculpture and his earliest painting, including a sketch for his last fresco in the Vatican Palace, the 1550 work entitled “The Crucifixion of St. Peter.”