N.Y. Museum to Host Versace Exhibition

The Metropolitan Museum of Art will host an exhibition celebrating the work of slain fashion designer Gianni Versace, officials said Friday.

The exhibition will open at the museum’s Costume Institute Dec. 11 and remain open through March 22, 1998, they said.

The exhibition also will be the centerpiece of the museum’s annual Costume Institute gala Dec. 8, traditionally a celebrity-studded social event.

The Versace exhibition will include a small retrospective of the Italian designer’s major themes and pieces, and it will trace his inspirations from Greek and Roman classicism and 18th-century court styles to pop artist Andy Warhol and modern abstract art.

Versace was known to visit the landmark museum on Fifth Avenue and was inspired by a recent exhibition that featured Byzantine crosses, Richard Martin, curator of the Costume Institute, said.

The exhibition also will include Versace’s recent experiments with new materials such as plastic and metal mesh, he said.

“It is a great privilege to honor this remarkable designer with an exhibition this year,” said Martin, who wrote a book published this year entitled “Versace.”

The designer was fatally shot July 15 at his oceanfront mansion in Miami Beach, Fla., by alleged killer Andrew Cunanan, who committed suicide Wednesday in a Miami houseboat, authorities said.