In the medieval West, painting on panel had not been especially common. Mosaic and fresco predominated in the decoration of churches; relics, not images, were the greatest focus of devotion. Nor were panel paintings especially sought by wealthy private patrons, who favored more luxurious objects such as tapestries and richly illuminated manuscripts. Icons arriving from the East, which gave new value to the painted image, helped shape the future of painting in the West. Icons flooded into Italy after 1204, following the ruinous Fourth Crusade, when Western armies sacked Constantinople. Like the many relics stolen from the Byzantine capital, icons were seized for the protection they were thought to afford, their power to effect miracles, and the prestige that ancient and venerated objects conveyed on those who held them. In Rome the most important icons frequently came under direct control of the pope.