Show WORKS OF ART PRESERVED art world interested in uncovering of old paintings in the mosque of saint sophia an important result that may bo be looked for whenever constantinople and the mosque of st sophia pass from under the control of the turks is the verification of a belief not generally known that the tha interior walls of the he building still hold in practically perfect condition the ornamentation with which the byzantine artists decorated them says a writer in christian science monitor the statement Is made with convincing detail by the italian architect fossaty Foss who was employed hy by sultan abdu ul majid to put the mosque in complete repair to do do this work fossaty removed the matting that lined the walls and took down the huge disks covered with arabic amble inscriptions that here and there ornamented them and behind these coverings he found the work of the ancient byzantines Byzant ines haala taken by the turks in 1453 was conver converted td to their own uses by the addition of minarets mina and by covering the walls the religion of its new possessors forbidding them to make or destroy any picture or statue of roan man fossati with lie he ancient glories of the christian edifice temporarily uncovered made the notes for his book and painted colored facsimiles of some of the illo mosaics sales then lie sealed them from view by replacing the coverings |