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Article: What was the Holy Grail, and why our centuries-old fascination with it?
- Article from:
- The Independent (London, England)
- Article date:
- October 22, 2008
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright 2008 The Independent - London. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The big question
Why are we asking this now?
Because a new exhibition at the Royal Academy, which brings
together hundreds of relics from more than 1,000 years of the
Byzantine Empire, has stirred up renewed and fevered excitement over
the idea that the Holy Grail is in town.
Curators spent five years bringing together a host of
archaeological treasures including mosaics, jewellery, icons and
manuscripts to create the first exhibition in Britain on Byzantine
art in more than 50 years. But the item causing the most frenzied
excitement is the Antioch Chalice, a sixth century silver cup on
loan from New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art which - to grail
aficionados - is one of the most ...