A public dispute has arisen between the French officials in charge of the reconstruction of the fire-damaged Notre Dame cathedral in Paris.
General Jean-Louis Georgelin, who is President Emmanuel Macron's special representative on the project, stunned MPs by insulting the chief architect in charge of the cathedral, telling him “to shut his big mouth” in front of the National Assembly’s cultural commission.
— The Art Newspaper
Plans to restore the damaged spire of the historic Notre Dame Cathedral are well underway months after a tragic fired ravaged the Cathedral. However, conflict is brewing between General Jean-Louis Georgelin and Philippe Villeneuve, the chief architect put in charge of the Cathedral.
The conflict stems over the issue of either removing the historic spire entirely or simply restoring it in place. According to Vincent Noce of The Art Newspaper, "Villeneuve, threatened to resign last month if the spire that was destroyed in April's fire were not reconstructed in its original form. 'I will restore it identically, and it will be me, or they will build a modern spire, and it won't be me,' Villeneuve said during a broadcast interview."
The debate over how the spire should be restored has caused many reactions from the public. Many seek to protect the Cathedral's historic structural integrity, while others are pushing for visible changes to symbolize the Cathedrals "rebirth" after the fire.
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5 Comments
This is about who gets the reconstruction contract (est. $1b).
Good point Jaffe... haha!
can each of them get a spire? problem solved!
Thanks for the informative details.
They aspire for different spires? Oddly enough the recently toasted spire was an 1800s replacement that was much newer than the church itself (1260), but looked much older.
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