HOLY TCHOTCHKES; VALLEY FIRM GETS LICENSE TO SELL VATICAN COLLECTION MATERIAL.

Byline: Enrique Rivero Staff Writer

A Valley firm has been given the Vatican's blessing to sell merchandise based on the church's art and artifacts to the masses.

November Lazar Scher Inc., a product licensing and marketing consulting firm in Studio City, has been hired to organize a licensing and merchandising program based on objects in the Vatican Treasury Museum, which houses a vast collection ranging from works by Gianlorenzo Bernini to papal gifts from heads of state to chalices and crosses.

The merchandise won't necessarily be, say, replicas of statues in the Vatican's collection, said Mark November, a partner with the firm. Rather, merchandise could include linens, lampshades, tableware and gifts and other products, all based on the Vatican objects.

``The objects are going to be sold in many different ways,'' November said. ``The most important thing that concerns us is the quality of the products and that they are truly inspirational to our buyers.''

The manufacturers would be licensed to use the name Vatican Treasury Collection as a brand and pay royalties for the licenses. Part of the proceeds would go back to the Vatican, and the rest would cover such things as commissions and administrative costs.

A few select items will be available this holiday season, but the ``overwhelming bulk'' of them will be released over the next three to five years, November said.

November Lazar Scher has plenty of experience in such merchandising programs, having helped develop products based on almost every Walt Disney Co. property of the past 10 years, as well as products based on ``Jurassic Park,'' ``Star Trek'' and ``The X-Files.''

The firm's solid reputation is what attracted Gerald Colapinto, the Vatican Treasury Collection's licensing and marketing director, who contracted the local company in February after a months-long, coast-to-coast search.

``We have a brand that's unquestionably the most recognizable brand in the world, and we wanted to complement that with a sales force that had a reputation for handling wholesome and good brands,'' Colapinto said.

All merchandise must receive the Vatican's blessing before it is manufactured and sold, Colapinto said. And the manufacturers themselves will be carefully selected.

``Not everyone who seeks a license receives a license,'' he said. ``It's not based on finances as much as how that company will represent the Vatican products in the best light.''

Products will be sold through regular retail outlets and through a chain of stores that the Vatican Treasury Collection is creating.

``We're working with a major, major, major force in New York on developing the store program,'' Colapinto said.

The flagship store should open in Manhattan in 18 months to two years.

But a University of Southern California religion professor thinks the stores, and the merchandise, for that matter, could cheapen one of the world's most popular religions.

Whether or not they're religious, the fact that the objects come from the Vatican will give the merchandise based on them a religious patina that could add to its value, said John P. Crossley Jr., associate professor and director of the School of Religion at the University of Southern California.

That, in turn, commercializes religion - and perhaps cheapens it, he said. It's one thing when merchants in Giverny, France, sell handbags and place mats based on paintings by French Impressionist and native son Claude Monet.

``But when the church does this and decides it has some Berninis or whatever, that it can do the same thing the Monet Foundation can do, I personally think it's somewhat tasteless,'' Crossley said. ``I don't think it's high class to license their treasures to put on handbags and place mats or whatever.

``That's what I meant when I said it cheapens religion. It commercializes it.''

Be that as it may, the merchandise is likely to find plenty of buyers - though it may not be for everyone.

Like other licensed collectibles, the Vatican Treasury merchandise may strike some as junk, said Richard Giss, a partner with the trade retail services group of accounting firm Deloitte & Touche LLP in Los Angeles. But for others, they may be real treasures that tap into their religious sentiments.

``It's not going to be for everybody, but I don't presume they're going to think it will be,'' Giss said.

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Photo

PHOTO (Color) Mark November displays a mock-up logo for the Vatican Treasury Museum line of products his company will develop.

Andy Holzman/Daily News