‘Heavenly Bodies’ sets heavenly record at Met Museum

FILE - In this May 7, 2018 file photo, an ensemble, created by Yves Saint Laurent in collaboration with the jeweler Goossens for a statue of the Virgin at the Chapel of Notre-Dame de Compassion in Paris, is displayed at the Metropolitan Museum of Art spring exhibit, “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination,” in New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art says the just-closed fashion exhibit has broken the record for most-visited exhibition, beating out the massive 1978 King Tut show. (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File)
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NEW YORK — Fashion and Catholicism have trumped King Tut.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art says its just-closed fashion exhibit “Heavenly Bodies: Fashion and the Catholic Imagination” has broken the record for most-visited exhibition, beating out the massive 1978 King Tut show.

The sumptuous and sprawling “Heavenly Bodies” at the Met’s Costume Institute was spread between the museum’s main Fifth Avenue location and its Cloisters branch uptown. The museum says the show brought in 1,659,647 visitors between the two locales.

In 1978, “Treasures of Tutankhamun” brought in 1,360,957 visitors.

“Heavenly Bodies” was the largest exhibit ever mounted at the Met, covering 60,000 square feet in 25 galleries. It was curated by Andrew Bolton, the Costume Institute’s chief curator.