Eric Braverman got his hands on The Last Supper for the first time on a family trip to Hollywood, where he found Jesus and the 12 Apostles inside a snow globe at a wax museum gift shop.
“So I asked my mom and dad to buy it for me,” he recalls. “And they did.”
In 1972, Braverman was a first grader at Pendergast Elementary School in Phoenix. The teacher’s comments were written on the report card. “Eric’s knowledge gathering is both fun and a challenge in the classroom.”
This snow globe was collected by Braverman over the next 50 years until he opened his own museum, The Last Supper Museum, in the Arizona border town of Douglas, which sparked an interest in such artifacts. It was the first in a collection of some 2,500 The Last Supper. He moved in March 2021.
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How the World’s Largest Last Supper Collection Came to Douglas, Arizona
“When I moved to Douglas, I thought, ‘What would be fun to do?'” Braverman recalls.
“So I bought one of the most historic buildings in the center of town, a 115-year-old 13,000-square-foot building, and began preparations for the world’s largest collection of The Last Supper, 2,500 pieces. There was controversy, and now we’re doing it here.”
If such a thing exists, we will confirm Braverman’s claims with the Last Supper Collection Authority.
The Last Supper Museum’s collection includes Leonardo da Vinci’s most famous Last Supper.
The original is still in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. But the Douglas Museum of Art has prints of da Vinci’s work “in nice frames so people can look at them and compare them.”
There is also the Last Supper carved into an ostrich egg and the Last Supper carved into a log. The Last Supper comes in one made entirely out of Pez dispensers and another out of slippers. The last one, of course, is titled “Last Slipper.”
Braverman said Da Vinci’s original work is “the most reimagined, repurposed, redone, reconceptualized work of art in history. Salvador Dali did it, Andy Warhol did it, Banksy did it.” I did it.”
Before moving to Douglas, Braverman spent ten years running Heavy Metal Television, an online network that streamed music videos 24 hours a day from his home on the west side of Phoenix.
He also wrote the liner notes for the Slayer box set “Soundtrack to the Apocalypse,” which IMDB called “the wackiest, most dangerous, most intoxicating rock and roll documentary ever made.” He hosted and produced the Metallica documentary “Metalimania.”
Braverman’s roots in the metal community run deep, as does his friendship with some of the scene’s key players.
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Tom Araya, bassist for Slayer, one of the heaviest and most influential thrash bands in heavy metal history, has thus joined the Advisory Board of The Last Supper Museum, which opened on January 14, 2023.
“He told me all about this museum,” Araya says. “He’s always full of ideas, and I thought that was really cool.
“Then he said, ‘I was wondering if you could help me.’ told me.”
Araya returns with numbers that make him what Braverman calls “the number one financial contributor to all people and even businesses in the world.”
Araya was happy to help.
“I thought, ‘I want to be part of that,'” he says. “I like Eric. He’s a good guy. He always wants to do something to help people. And he’s my friend. So his wife and I decided to help him.” Did.”
It was a fun experience for Araya.
“Eric has accomplished so much,” he says. “And our enjoyment comes from Eric’s enthusiasm for it. He intends to involve everyone in the Last Supper. ”
Araya, who lives in Texas, has not been to the museum yet, but plans to soon. But he has seen pictures.
“I think it’s amazing,” he says. “But you have to see things like that in real life. You can’t just look at pictures.”
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The Beginning of the Royal London Wax Museum in Phoenix
Braverman’s fascination with The Last Supper items began at least months before he purchased the snow globe.
Earlier that year, at the Royal London Wax Museum near the Phoenix Zoo, his mind was struck by a wax-like spectacle of the seven magical worlds of Josephine Tussaud’s Wax Museum.
“It was the scariest wax museum in the world,” he recalls with a laugh.
“Actually, a stuffed lion was eating a Christian. Cleopatra was completely naked. And in one room the Last Supper was being served with the apostles and Jesus looking very angry.”
Then his family went to Hollywood and found another wax museum.
“And then there was another Last Supper,” he recalls with a laugh. “I’m like, ‘Look at this!'” ”
Make friends with the people at the Last Supper Museum
At that point he was hooked and started building a collection.
For a long time, he rightly thought he was the only one in the world with a vast collection of Last Supper art. He affectionately called the Reverend Charles Frawley and his wife Wilma his rivals until he learned of the Greensburg, Indiana couple.
“They ate a lot of the Last Supper.
It didn’t take long before the Frawley family found themselves comparing notes with Braverman about their collection.
Braverman recalls, “We were like, ‘Oh, look, we got the Last Supper Rice Krispies treats.'”
When Reverend Flory died, his wife donated the collection to those who seemed to best understand what they were given.
“That’s why we have such a large collection, because they’ve been collecting for 50 years, so it’s a 100-year collection of every possible medium,” Braverman said. says.
“We have the Last Supper made of coal. The Last Supper made of volcanic ash, ostrich eggs, mother-of-pearl and gourds. Woodcarving, Lego, etc.”
In addition to housing a vast collection of Braverman’s Last Supper art, this non-profit museum also serves as an arts education center, providing clothing, food, and support programs for those in need, Cochise County We also offer annual arts scholarships to community colleges.
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Why Douglas, Arizona Is Perfect For The Last Supper Museum
Braverman says he’s working with the Cochise County Tourism Economic Council to spread the word, but at the same time the location he feels is prime off U.S. Route 80 will attract tourists. Said he was looking forward to it.
“It used to be America’s Broadway,” he says. “From Benson to Tombstone to Bisbee to Douglas.”
It doesn’t matter that the Gadsden Hotel is across the street.
“It’s one of the oldest and most luxurious hotels,” says Braverman. “The lobby has 40-foot-high marble columns and Tiffany glass. Pancho Villa rode there on horseback.
“So everyone who uses AZ 80, from bikers to tourists to curious vacationers, usually goes to Gadsden, and Gadsden delivers them here. It will help us with our transportation.”
Braverman said the Last Supper Museum is “a stone’s throw” from another interesting museum, Art Car World.
“Cars and bikes that work have become art,” he says. “There’s a car that looks like a dinosaur, a car that looks like a cathedral, and a car that looks like a yacht. And it’s a block away. There’s a group of goofy people here.”
The museum has approximately 400 pieces from Braverman’s 2,500-piece collection. The rest have been preserved, except for a few copies of The Last Supper, which are displayed in Braverman’s house.
“One in 200 people don’t like this museum,” Braverman says of the museum
Reaction to the Last Supper Museum has been generally positive.
“One in 200 people don’t like it,” says Braverman. “What about the other 199? They love it and are taking pictures.”
For those who don’t like museums, there are two camps.
Some people say they don’t like religion.
“I have to explain to them,” says Braverman. “It’s not about religion. It’s about art and collections: mystery, education and even intellectual exploration.”
Some found the work profane.
“Some people say, ‘I don’t think there should be a Star Wars Last Supper,'” says Braverman.
“Or you hate seeing one of the Avengers or Homer Simpson in Christ’s position. I love checking it out, they find it healing and it makes them feel better, and they always donate.”
Best place? “It is impossible to collect all the Last Supper”
People tend to be surprised by the number of Last Supper events around the world, he says.
“Because it never ends,” he says. “It’s impossible to collect all the Last Supper. At this point, Tom, I, and the rest of the company are offered the Last Supper from somewhere in the world about every 12 hours. You find it at real estate agents, thrift stores, and sometimes directly in the trash.”
Knowing he could never hope to complete his own collection was a big part of Braverman’s love of collections.
“There will always be something new,” he says.
“Someone always says, ‘Let’s make the Last Supper out of a wrench.’ Here we have a Last Supper made out of cigarettes, cigarette packs, and lighters. We have one soldier, and that’s you. is anything you can think of, anything you’ve ever liked.”
Braverman thinks it’s appropriate given the legend of King Arthur’s Grail, and wants to build his own Last Supper out of the armor.
“So far we have three pieces of armor here,” he says. “No modern parts, just solid steel and leather. I’m using them to build The Last Supper, which weighs a ton and stands about 25 feet tall. So it’s It’s a big project, but I like it.”
Comparing the Arizona Museum of Art and the Last Supper in Milan
Braverman saw Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” many times in Milan while touring Europe with various heavy metal bands as what he called “entertainment troubleshooters.” and made sure the musicians were happy.
“This is the only museum in the world that has The Last Supper,” says Braverman. “And our favorite joke is, ‘Well, but they only have one he has.'”
Araya likes to joke about Da Vinci.
“I said to Eric, ‘You should buy that.'” He said, “No.” I said, “Yes, let’s buy it.” You can even put it on the ceiling. ”
Araya laughs heartily.
“Maybe one day,” he says. “You never know.”
Last Supper Museum in Arizona
time: Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 4:30pm.
where: 1101 G Avenue, Douglas, Arizona.
Admission fee: Free; donations accepted.
detail: 623-877-4596, Last Super Museum.com.
Please contact the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. follow him on twitter @EdMasley.
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