WHO WE ARE

Holy Land Art Company was founded in 1922 by Alphonse Tonietti, a graduate of the University of Beirut trained in the ecclesiastical arts. He settled in New York and continued in the business until his death in the mid 1950’s.

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In 1959, Chris Degheri, a member of the O’Toole Church Supply family, purchased the Company from the Tonietti family. Degheri developed a flourishing catalog business and responded, in small ways, to the clients who requested design work. In 1984, Thomas Cleary, his son-in law, entered the business and with his design and construction experience, began to develop a separate contract division.

In 1989, Thomas Cleary purchased the business from Chris Degheri and continued to diversify and grow the offerings of the company. Operations were expanded from New York to Westwood, New Jersey, North Palm Beach, Florida, and Las Vegas, Nevada.

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In 2017, Tom's son, Sean Cleary, joined Holy Land full-time after a number of years working in the Corporate Strategy group of the New York Stock Exchange and as a Merger & Acquisition consultant. The company continues to offer a range of services from liturgical design, custom fabrication of woodwork and metalwork, ecclesiastical painting and fine arts, sculpture, renovation and restoration.