[NYer]

The Museum of Divine Statues will occupy the former St. Hedwig Catholic Church in Lakewood. Museum founder Lou McClung has amassed about 65 pieces for the nonprofit exhibit. A December opening is planned.

Museum of Divine Statues curator Lou McClung of Lakewood describes how environment and neglect have damaged this statue of St. Sebastian, rescued from a closed parish in Cleveland. A professional make-up artist, McClung taught himself restoration techniques.

Lou McClung of Lakewood applied his skills as a makeup artist and manufacturer to restore statues such as this sculpture of Jesus from the 1920s.

[Genoa]

The taste for modernism notwithstanding, there must be a demand for these in Catholic churches or schools somewhere.

[Mercat]

My “un-churched” and even then non-Catholic sister in law has brought back several old wooden sacred statutes from her travels in central and south America. I saw hello to them whenever we visit her home and hope that they confer some sort of blessing. She also has some rather demonic looking art too however.

[ApplegateRanch]

Very interesting article, and not least because it explains how he is legally rescuing the statues. All too often these days, especially in Lib-speak, "rescuing" has become an euphemism for breaking in and stealing.

Glad to see they are being restored & will be displayed...and, when appropriate, returned.

[goat granny]

I’ll bet he has some of the most beautiful religious sculptures. I was given an Infant of Prague decades ago from an old church in Detroit..My daughter now has it in her formal living room....he is beautiful, stands about 2 feet tall.....very old and still had the original paint...

[TASMANIANRED]

What a worthy task.

[annalex]

In Soviet Russia, when Orthodox churches were summarily closed, looted for gold and bronze, desecrated, and the priests shot, the peasants would rescue the Holy Icons in their attics and basements, often at a risk of being branded as class enemies themselves.

As the Soviet regime mellowed after death of Stalin, icons were displayed in secular museums.

Somehow, in free America a similar, albeit far less violent dynamic of vandalism was in place not long ago. Thank God it is changing. Let us not forget, however, that the proper place for sacred art is a consecrated space.

[SuziQ]

What a wonderful thing to do! Some of those statues represent financial sacrifices made by immigrants to this country who helped pay for them because they wanted a beautiful place to worship, and visual reminders of their Lord, His Mother, and the Saints who loved Jesus.