The world's largest Last Supper museum is in Arizona, thanks to Slayer bassist Tom Araya

Eric Braverman got his first Last Supper on a family trip to Hollywood, where he found Jesus — and the 12 apostles — in 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."

It was 1972 and Braverman was in first grade at Pendergast Elementary School in Phoenix, where a teacher’s comment on his report card read, “Eric’s collection of knowledge is both a joy and challenge in the classroom.”

That snow globe was the first of some 2,500 Last Supper pieces in a collection Braverman would assemble over the next 50 years before opening his own museum dedicated to his fascination with such artifacts — the Last Supper Museum — in the Arizona border town of Douglas, where 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'm like, 'What would be a fun thing to do?'" Braverman recalls.

“So I bought one of the most historic buildings in the heart of town — a 115-year-old building with 13,000 square feet — and just started setting up my 2,500 Last Suppers, which is the largest Last Supper collection in the world, without dispute, and now here we are running it.”

We would verify Braverman's claim with the Last Supper Collection Authority if such a thing existed.

The Last Supper Museum collection includes the most famous Last Supper of all — Leonardo da Vinci's.

The original is still in the refectory of the Convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. But there's a print of the da Vinci piece "in a nice frame so people can see that to kind of compare” in the Douglas museum.

There's also a Last Supper etched in an ostrich egg and a Last Supper carved in a log. There's a Last Supper made entirely of Pez dispensers and another made of slippers. That last one has, of course, been titled the Last Slipper.

Da Vinci's original, Braverman says, "is the most reimagined, or repurposed, redone, reconceptualized piece of art in history: Salvador Dali has done it; Andy Warhol has done it; Banksy's done it.”

Before moving to Douglas, Braverman spent 10 years running Heavy Metal Television, an online network streaming music videos 24 hours a day from his home on the west side of Phoenix.

He also wrote the liner notes to the Slayer box set "Soundtrack to the Apocalypse" and hosted and produced "Metallimania," a Metallica documentary IMDB calls "the wackiest, most dangerous, and drunkest rock and roll documentary ever made."

Braverman’s roots in the metal community run deep, as do his friendships with some major players on that scene.

Here's how Slayer and the Last Supper Museum are connected

This is how Tom Araya, the bassist for one of the heaviest, most influential thrash bands in the history of heavy metal, Slayer, found himself on the advisory board of the Last Supper Museum, which opened Jan. 14, 2023.

“He was telling me all about this museum,” Araya says. “He’s always full of ideas. And I thought it was really cool.

"Then he goes, ‘I was wondering if you could help me out.’ He had a budget he wanted to put together and he mentioned to me that a friend of his had said that he would match whatever I said I would donate.”

Araya came back with a number that makes him what Braverman calls “our No. 1 financial contributor of all the people in the world, even corporations.”

Araya was happy to help.

“I thought, ‘I want to be a part of that,’” he says. “I like Eric. He’s a good guy. Always wants to do stuff to help people. And he’s my friend. So my wife and I decided we would help him.”

It’s been a fun experience for Araya.

“Eric's gotten so much done," he says. "And our enjoyment comes from his enthusiasm for it. It’s contagious. I thought, ‘This is great. He’s gonna get everybody involved in the Last Supper.’”

Araya, who lives in Texas, hasn’t been to the museum yet, although he plans to get there soon. But he’s seen photographs.

“I think it’s amazing,” he says. “But you have to see that kind of stuff in real life. You can’t just look at pictures.”

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How the Royal London Wax Museum in Phoenix got things started

Braverman’s fascination with Last Supper items predates the purchase of that snow globe by at least a few months.

Earlier that same year, his mind was blown by the waxy spectacle of Josephine Tussaud’s 7 Magic Worlds at Royal London Wax Museum near the Phoenix Zoo.

“It was the most hideous wax museum in the world,” he recalls with a laugh.

“It actually had taxidermy lions eating the Christians. Cleopatra was completely naked. And in one room, there was a Last Supper with very exasperated-looking apostles and Jesus.”

Then his family went to Hollywood and found that other wax museum.

“And there's another Last Supper in there,” he recalls with a laugh. “I'm like, 'Look at this thing!’ And for wax, that's a big one, 13 wax figures in one.”

Making friends with the folks at the other Last Supper Museum

By that point, he was hooked and started building his collection.

For the longest time, he naturally assumed he was the only person in the world with a huge collection of Last Supper art. Until he got wind of a couple in Greensburg, Indiana, he affectionately refers to as his rivals — the Rev. Charles Flory and his wife, Wilma.

“They had so many Last Suppers, they bought a house in their neighborhood, put all their Last Suppers in it and created the only Last Supper Museum in the world,” Braverman says.

It wasn’t long before the Florys found themselves comparing notes with Braverman on their collections.

Braverman recalls, “We'd be like, 'Oh, look, I got a Rice Krispie treat Last Supper.’”

When Rev. Flory died, his wife donated their collection to the person who seemed best equipped to understand what he’d been given.

“That's why we have such a big collection, because they'd been collecting 50 years, which makes it a 100-year collection in every medium possible,” Braverman says.

“We have a Last Supper made out of coal. A Last Supper made out of volcanic ashes, ostrich eggs, mother of pearl, gourds. And of course we have paintings. A Last Supper in a bottle, weavings, woodcarvings, Legos, etc., etc., etc.”

In addition to housing Braverman's massive collection of Last Supper art, the nonprofit museum serves as an arts education center as well as offering clothing, meals and outreach programs to people in need and yearly art scholarships to Cochise County Community College.

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Why Douglas, Arizona, is the perfect spot for the Last Supper Museum

Braverman says he has been working with the Cochise County Tourism and Economic Council to get the word out, but he’s also counting on what he feels is a prime location off U.S. 80 to bring tourists through his doors.

“It used to be the Broadway of America,” he says. “It goes from Benson to Tombstone to Bisbee to Douglas.”

It doesn't hurt that the Gadsden Hotel is just across the street.

“It’s one of the most historic and opulent hotels,” Braverman says. “Their lobby has 40-foot marble columns and Tiffany glass. Pancho Villa rode a horse in there.

"So everyone that takes the AZ 80, from bikers to tourists to curious vacationers, they usually head to the Gadsden. And the Gadsden sends them over here. So that helps us with traffic.”

The Last Supper Museum is also what Braverman says is “a stone's throw” from another curious museum, Art Car World.

“It's functioning cars and motorcycles turned into art,” he says. “So there's a car that's a dinosaur, a car that's a cathedral, a car that's a yacht. And that's a block away. We've got a goofy group down here.”

There are roughly 400 pieces from Braverman’s 2,500-piece collection on display in the museum. The rest are in storage, except for the handful of Last Suppers on display in the Braverman home.

'One out of 200 people don't like it,' Braverman says of the museum

Reactions to the Last Supper Museum have been mostly positive.

“One out of 200 people don't like it,” Braverman says. “The other 199? They love it and take pictures.”

As for those who don’t like the museum, there are two camps.

There are those who say they just don’t like religion.

“I've got to explain to them,” Braverman says. "It's not about religion. It's about the art and the collection. Mystery. Education. Even intellectual exploration.”

Others have found some of the pieces sacrilegious.

“There's people that come in and say, 'Hey, I don't think that there should be a Star Wars Last Supper,’” Braverman says.

“Or they don't like to see one of the Avengers or Homer Simpson in the Christ spot. But most devout people really like it. Even the old ladies that come up from Mexico, they love to come in here and check it out. They feel it has curative powers and it makes them feel good. And they always make a donation.”

The best part? 'You can't collect all the Last Suppers'

People tend to be surprised, he says, at the sheer number of Last Suppers in the world.

“Because it never ends,” he says. “You can't collect all the Last Suppers. At this point, Tom and I and the rest of the gang are offered a Last Supper about every 12 hours from somewhere in the world. Someone finds one at their grandma's house or an estate sale or a thrift shop, sometimes straight out of the garbage.”

Knowing he could never hope to finish his collection is a large part of what Braverman has come to love about it.

“There's always gonna be something new,” he says.

“Somebody always goes, you know, 'Let's make a Last Supper out of wrenches.' We have a Last Supper in here that's made out of cigarettes, cigarette packs and lighters. We have one of army men. It's just anything you could think of. Anything you ever liked.”

Braverman is hoping to create his own Last Supper out of suits of armor, which he feels would be appropriate in light of Arthurian legends of the Holy Grail.

“I've got three suits of armor here so far," he says. "No modern parts, just solid steel and leather. I'm making a Last Supper out of those, which will weigh a ton and be, like, 25 feet. So it's a big project. But I like that."

How the Arizona museum compares to seeing The Last Supper in Milan

Braverman has seen Leonardo da Vinci’s "The Last Supper" in Milan many times through the years while touring Europe with assorted heavy metal bands as what he calls "an entertainment troubleshooter," making sure the musicians were happy.

“They're the only other Last Supper museum in the world,” Braverman says. “And the joke we like to make is 'Well, but they only have one.'”

Araya likes to joke about da Vinci.

“I told Eric, ‘We should buy it.’ He goes, ‘Nooo.’ I said, ‘Yeah, let’s buy it. We can put it on the ceiling.’”

Araya lets a hearty laugh out.

“We just might one day,” he says. “You never know.”

The Last Supper Museum in Arizona

Hours: 10 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Tuesdays-Sundays.

Where: 1101 G Ave., Douglas, Arizona.

Admission: Free; donations accepted.

Details: 623-877-4596, lastsuppermuseum.com.

Reach the reporter at ed.masley@arizonarepublic.com or 602-444-4495. Follow him on Twitter @EdMasley.

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This article originally appeared on Arizona Republic: How heavy metal brought a Last Supper museum to an Arizona border town