Thieves Attempted to Steal Medieval Stones from Paris’s Notre-Dame Cathedral While a Citywide Lockdown Put Its Renovation on Pause

Since the devastating fire that
nearly leveled Paris’s Notre Dame Cathedral last April, the iconic
French landmark has been undergoing an unprecedented
restoration. But
intensifying quarantine
measures in France have halted those recovery efforts indefinitely
last week—and two would-be thieves attempted to take advantage of
the situation.

The thieves allegedly broke into
the construction site and attempted to sack several fallen stones
from inside the cathedral. According to Le Parisien, which first reported the news, the two men
were apprehended by guards who spotted them in the early evening on
March 17. A spokesperson for Notre Dame says it is believed that
the men intended to sell the stones illicitly on the black market
and that they had likely broken in through a fault in the
construction site.

The construction site remains
guarded 24 hours a day despite the construction
pause. 

The recent halt in construction
will likely put a dent in the five-year timeline for restoration
established by French Prime minister Emmanuel Macron—a timeline
many experts already found
hasty. Meanwhile, the delicate process of removing melted
scaffolding, which has threatened the stability of the building
since the blaze, was scheduled to begin on March 23, adding further
concerns to the future of the continuously imperiled edifice.
Reconstruction efforts were previously stalled when the cathedral’s
debris was found to be giving off dangerous levels of toxic
lead pollution.

Nevertheless, the eight months of
restoration thus far have been eye-opening both to scientists and
historians with new insights about the process of the cathedral’s
construction from the 12th to 14th century, and the discovery of
remnants of earlier church structure incorporated into the
overarching plan, according to a recent article
by Science magazine.

The hiatus at Notre Dame is just
one of the many measures taken to protect public health in France,
including the closure of all museums
and limiting gatherings to 100 people. 

The post Thieves Attempted to Steal Medieval Stones from
Paris’s Notre-Dame Cathedral While a Citywide Lockdown Put Its
Renovation on Pause appeared first on artnet News.