Jana Černocká – Monuments in Motion: How America is Buying the Middle Ages

In 1913, the town of Cuxa in the foothills of the Pyrenees experiences an unusual spectacle: the monastery of St Michael, its half-decayed, abandoned, stolen but still standing pride, is partially dismantled and taken away. Twenty years later, its fragments - mostly ornate capitals from the cloister's ambulatory - dominate the collections of The Cloisters, one of New York's most famous museums. The patron saint of this building, which looks like a medieval monastery, is none other than John D. Rockefeller Jr., businessman, philanthropist and financial magnate. How is it possible that wealthy Americans at the beginning of the last century bought medieval monuments? What are the roots of America's love affair with the Middle Ages? And what about Europe?

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