La Tribune de l’Art generally prefers to support petitions rather than launch them itself. But the announcement by the President of the Republic that he was going to replace some of Viollet-le-Duc’s stained glass windows (see article) prompts us to do so. This announcement comes just one year before Notre-Dame cathedral is due to reopen to the public, and is being made under a fast-track procedure that runs counter to previous commitments made by the Ministry of Culture; it therefore requires a swift and forceful response.
Contrary to what some may think, petitions, when they have many signatories, can be successful. The petition calling for the safeguarding of the Gardens of Notre-Dame certainly got things moving [1].
That’s why we’ve decided to create a petition to state loud and clear our opposition to the replacement of Viollet-le-Duc’s stained glass windows in the south aisle. We explained in our article how this project constitutes vandalism. On the contrary, we are not opposed to contemporary stained glass windows in old buildings, when the previous ones have disappeared. But in this case there is no valid reason to remove stained glass windows that are an integral part of the architect’s work and that survived the fire.
I would therefore like to thank all our readers for signing this petition and circulating it, including abroad. The emotion that spread around the world during the fire in 2019, and in particular when Viollet-le-Duc’s spire collapsed, shows that this monument does not belong to the French alone, and certainly not to the President of the Republic, who has no legitimacy in this area.
How can we accept that restoration to the last known historical state, that of Viollet-le-Duc, should also be the occasion for the destruction of part of the work of this same architect? The fundraising donors who made this project possible will undoubtedly be the first to oppose this vandalism.
Emmanuel Macron, who along with his predecessors bears some responsibility for the disaster that has befallen Notre-Dame de Paris, due to a lack of resources allocated to its preservation, should show more modesty and take advantage of this project, which is being carried out fairly well, to bring the French together, rather than to divide them once again.