Frantic bid to save Notre-Dame art
PARIS AFP April 20 ( AFP) - French art experts headed into the stricken Notre- Dame cathedral in Paris to remove all the remaining paintings on Friday despite warnings from an environmental group that the site could be a toxic health threat.
Culture ministry officials were allowed into the 850-year-old landmark to begin retrieving the artworks after fire service officials declared the scorched structure safe enough to go inside.
Firefighters and engineering experts have been working on the fragile landmark since a devastating blaze on Monday night, erecting scaffolding and other wooden supports to stop any of the stonework collapsing.
“The paintings inside the cathedral have been saved from the flames and can now be taken down and transported to safe areas,” France's Culture Minister Franck Riester told reporters at the scene on Friday.
“All of the paintings will be removed today,” Riester added, saying that he was feeling “very positive” given how most of the priceless canvasses, many of them dating from the 17th or 18th century, had been saved.
As firefighters inspected the top of the fragile southern facade, art experts began carrying out paintings from the cathedral in protective white film and loading them into trucks.
The artworks were taken to the Louvre museum, a centre of restoration, where experts will repair relatively minor damage caused by smoke or water before storing the paintings until they can be returned.
But as the latest phase of salvage work took place, a French charity warned about the possible health impact from the fire.
The Robin des Bois ( Robin Hood) organisation said that around 300 tonnes of lead from the roof and steeple had melted in Monday night's fire, which according to officials had reached 800 degrees Celsius (1,470F) at its peak.
“The cathedral has been reduced to the state of toxic waste,” the association said.
Thanks to a human chain formed by firefighters and church officials on Monday night, the vast majority of the most sacred artifacts and valuable items inside the cathedral were saved.
These include the Holy Crown of Thorns, which Catholics believe was worn by Jesus Christ at his crucifixion, and a tunic thought to have belonged to 13th- century French crusader king, Louis IX, who was made a saint.