The story of Sorgheloos ("Carefree") is a kind of secular version of the Prodigal Son, but unlike the Prodigal, poor Sorgheloos experiences no redemption; he fritters away his inheritance and ends up abandoned and alone in poverty. Husband was especially determined to have this particular piece, which depicts the unhappy conclusion of the tale, and after losing it in a bidding war to a dealer at a London auction, he approached the dealer and instantly reserved it. "Some curators will just walk away from an object if they lose it at auction to a dealer, but I had to have this Sorgheloos roundel. It was too important to the collection to lose." One of Husband’s ongoing projects at the Cloisters is the restoration and re-installation of its windows, which, though protected by clear back-plates, still have to be monitored for corrosive effects brought about by pollutants.

The newest museum collection of stained glass is at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles. Though medieval art has long been represented there by an excellent collection of illuminated manuscripts, it never occurred to the curators to add stained glass to the collection of European decorative arts until the museum’s 2000 exhibition "Painting on Light: Drawings and Stained Glass in the Age of Dürer and Holbein." Organized by Barbara Butts and Lee Hendrix, it was something of a German bookend to the Met’s "Luminous Image" show. The combination of the German design drawings for stained glass (of which the Getty has an unusually fine collection) and the windows derived from them made such an impression that the Getty began to think seriously about adding stained glass to its holdings. "We already had drawings and illuminated manuscripts from the period, and the stained glass made a good fit," explains Hendrix. "So we unofficially began to look around." An opportunity arose in 1993, when Sam Fogg sold the museum his entire stained glass exhibition of more than 30 pieces dating from the 12th to the 16th centuries, which will be installed in the Getty’s new decorative arts galleries, slated to open early next year.
 
You don’t have to be a museum curator with deep institutional pockets to buy medieval stained glass, Fogg is quick to point out. Fragments such as heads or small figures start at around $5,000, while complete panels, which Fogg calls "very rare and desirable," range from $30,000 to $500,000 or even $1 million. He recently sold a late 13th-century head extracted from a window of Rouen Cathedral for $10,000 and an intact panel depicting three French kings, circa 1500, for $150,000. Fogg says, "It’s a cheap area compared with any other kind of medieval art."

Blumka Gallery, New York
212.734.3222 blumkagallery.com
Daniel Katz, London
011.44.20.7493.0688 katz.co.uk
International Center of Medieval Art, New York
212.928.1146 medievalart.org
J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles
310.440.7300 getty.edu
Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Cloisters, New York
212.535.7710 metmuseum.org
Sam Fogg, London
011.44.20.7534.2100 samfogg.com
Walters Art Museum, Baltimore
410.547.9000 thewalters.org