From St. Peter’s Basilica, Vatican City to Flushing Meadows, Queens
When Pope John XXIII agreed to send the Pietà to New York, for what some considered as frivolous as a fair, the news hit the art establishment like an atom bomb. The reaction from the media and academia was fierce, and even the Pope came under criticism. It didn’t matter what how much the naysayers protested, Roma locuta, causa finita est. Moses had his blockbuster attraction and Spellman had his assignment.
Spellman’s success turned on the team that he had assembled to hammer out all the details of shipping the Pietà. The members of the newly-formed Vatican Pavilion Transport Committee left no stone unturned in researching the most highly developed methods of shipping the Renaissance treasure. This included the consideration of the newest packing material, polystyrene, otherwise known as Styrofoam.
