Gilded in Faith

June 2026

The BYU Museum of Art recently unveiled restored gypsum cast panels of Italian sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti’s famous Gates of Paradise. Ghiberti’s work depicts stories from the Old Testament and is one of the most important pieces in the early Renaissance.

“This piece isn’t just anywhere,” says Samantha Atzbach, a former student assistant who helped restore the piece. “There aren’t many copies of it, so for BYU to have [one] is very unique and important. It will be a great educational resource for the entire region.”

The current exhibition titled Gilded Paradise includes immersive projections of Florence and will be available through October. Later this year, the panel will be permanently displayed in the MOA atrium.

The panels came to BYU 10 years ago, and the restoration process began: damage was repaired, lost details were restored, gold leaf and varnish were applied, and a custom structural frame was built.

Students from varied majors have gained hands-on experience and developed specialized skills working on the sculptures. Over the years, students have contributed an estimated 13,000 hours of work on the project, under the direction of professionals led by museum fabricator John Adams.

“As a student, . . . there’s always something due in my classes, and things have to be rushed,” says Rachel Maughan, a recent fine arts graduate who worked on the restoration. “But here I get to [make] sure that these relief sculptures, the figures, the plaster molds themselves are correct,” she shares. “It’s really nice to . . . focus on growing those skills and treating it like Ghiberti would.”

Working on the project strengthened Maughan’s devotion to and belief in Jesus Christ. “We are all broken and worn at times, yet through Christ we are restored and made whole again,” she says.

The original Gates of Paradise were created by Ghiberti between 1425 and 1452 as the doors of the Florence Baptistery. The doors and the 10 panels therein were considered revolutionary for their realism and depth. To preserve the doors, molds were taken of the panels shortly after World War II.

The MOA replica was cast from those molds in the 1980s. After being acquired by BYU–Hawaii and stored in crates for 32 years, the panels were rediscovered by Sharon Gray, a former BYU art education professor who was then working as a service missionary for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Museum of Art Exhibition: Gilded Paradise
BYU News article about the MOA's Gates of Paradise

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