A Békés Megyei Múzeumok Közleményei 23. (Békéscsaba, 2002)

Kiss Anikó: Valuable group of objects in the Gyula Ferenc Erkel Museum

Értékes tárgyegyüttes a gyulai Erkel Ferenc Múzeumban Valuable group of objects in the Gyula Ferenc Erkel Museum - Anikó Kiss Résumé The publication describes the history of four valuable objects preserved in the more than 130 years old Gyula Museum. In 1913 János Domonkos museum guard got 4 holy sculptures, carved from linden-wood. The sculptures - made in Baroque style are the portraits of St. István (Stephen), St. Imre, St. Gellért and Boldog(COOÍ/J Béda. Two of them have gilded clothes, the other two have multi-coloured clothing. Both of the glided sculptures have been damaged. The face of St. Imre was engraved in a sanguinary manner. These damages could happened already after they were taken into the museum, because Domonkos did not mentioned it in the 1910-s. The conditions how the sculptures got to Gyula are also interesting, because the sculptures got from the far Ugocsa County Feketeardó to the property of the Museum. A bricklayer master, originating from Gyula, found them walled in in the Feketeardó catholic church. The history of Feketeardó is rather vicissitudinous, so the date of the walling in of the Saints can not be specified exactly. The village was damaged so much in the 17

th

—18

th centuries, that the hiding was forgotten. Also the museum was damaged in the 20

th century, so the date of the damaging of the sculptures can not be specified as well. The museum's book of inventory was lost during the II. World War, so we could know the history of the sculptures only after research launched on the basis of some newspaper news. Kiss Anikó Erkel Ferenc Múzeum H-5700 Gyula, Kossuth L. u. 17. 561