Carolyn Farb Interviews Dominique and François de Menil - Byzantine Chapel Fresco Museum Houston

Arts Patron/Philanthropist Carolyn Farb interviews Dominique, French-American art collector, philanthropist, and founder of the Menil Collection, and architect François de Menil about the Byzantine Fresco Chapel Museum - restoration of the apse and dome and creating an environment of spirituality. When Dominique de Menil learned that a group of 13th-century Byzantine frescoes had been stolen from a chapel in Lysi, Cyprus, and cut up by smugglers, she paid the ransom and funded their restoration. In return for her efforts, the Holy Bishopric of Cyprus allowed the works which remained in Houston on a 20-year loan. The frescoes—a dome with Christ Pantokrator and an apse depicting the Virgin Mary Panayia—were installed in a reliquary-like space interior where they were displayed until March 2012, at which time they were returned to the Church of Cyprus. The building was designed by architect Francois de Menil and appropriate to the Lysi Chapel, ultimately creating a chapel within a chapel, based on the original. Special thanks to the Access Houston/Houston Media Source