Some of the world’s best-loved works of art are traveling to Jerusalem. In honor of the 65^th anniversary of the founding of the State of Israel, Italy’s renowned Uffizi Gallery has sent Botticelli’s fresco The Annunciation to The Israel Museum, Jerusalem. The fresco is the first of four masterpieces created by Renaissance and Baroque artists that will be displayed at IMJ over a period of two years.

Part of a program created jointly by the museum and the Italy-Israel Foundation for Culture and the Arts, The Botticelli fresco originally graced the space above the entrance to San Martino della Scala, a hospital in Florence that later became a depository for victims of the Plague.

Research suggests it was displayed as an expression of gratitude for the dissipation of the deadly disease’s sweep through northern Italy. The fresco was damaged during the 17^th-century building renovation. It was relocated in 1920 to its home in the Uffizi.

The new exhibition is particularly significant not only for the work’s stunning beauty and historic importance, but because it is the first Botticelli ever to be displayed at IMJ. It remains on view at the Aaron and Blima Shickman Old Masters Galleries through Jan. 11.

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