Vehbi Koç Foundation’s Sadberk Hanım Museum Exhibition, “Ecclesiastical Silver From Late Ottoman Istanbul in the Sevgi Gönül Collection” was open to visits between 15 April and 2 July 2006. Deceased Sevgi Gönül, the late Chairperson of the Board of Executives of Sadberk Hanım Museum has painstakingly collected and meticulously built a Collection of Ecclesiastical Silver of the Ottoman Period. After she passed away in 2003, her collection was included in the Sadberk Hanım Museum Collections. This exhibition of 65 exhibits has reflected the artistic taste of the multi-cultural social fabric of the cosmopolitan capital Istanbul of the Ottoman society between 18th and 20th centuries.

Most exhibits are silver and a large number of them bear the royal seal "tuğra". They were produced in Istanbul and according to the needs of the Christian communities of the Ottoman citizenry. These artefacts also include inscriptions that inform the visitors on their places of use. Through these inscriptions we learn the details of donations made for the salvation of the spirits and protection of the Lord, and made by members of families, groups of tradesmen, fraternal societies organised around predominantly Greek churches along the Bosphorus. These inscriptions not only form a form of prayer but also emphasise the traditions that originated from the Byzantine era were continued during the Ottoman rule.

The exhibition includes religious artefacts used during the Lord’s Supper service, baptism, and consecration of water ceremonies and consists of various pots, prayer utensils, illumination objects, patriarch’s staffs, robes and accessories.