Erratum to ‘Stained glass after a disaster: Feedback and methodology’ [Journal of Cultural Heritage volume 56C (July-August 2022) 36-47

Abstract

After the fire at Notre-Dame de Paris in April 2019, conservation scientists and art historians joined forces with the chief architect and the monument curators to facilitate the management of emergency operations on the stained-glass windows. Information and methodologies were provided for the swift removal of twenty-five 19th and 20th-century windows following the disaster. Restoration and lead decontamination protocols were studied in laboratories and inside the building in order to determine the duration and cost of the upcoming restorations. Thanks to the careful handling of the fire by the firefighters, the stained-glass windows of Notre-Dame were mostly preserved and very little thermal stress breakage was observed on the panels. However, the necessity to use all the teams available inside the building to deal with the generalized lead contamination caused by the roof fire considerably slowed down all the restoration operations. Given the limited time remaining before the building would be reopened, the teams decided to follow two different protocols: a decontamination protocol of the stained glass that remained in the building, and the complete off-site decontamination then restoration of the panels that had been removed. The presence of scaffolding inside the cathedral also provided the opportunity to draw up new restoration charts for the medieval stained glass in the rose windows. This new document would update the previous chart published in 1959, which was based on binocular observations from the ground. The disaster in Notre-Dame de Paris has reminded everyone that a building can quickly be destroyed by a fire, even today. One of the immediate consequences has been the revision of many cathedral security procedures in case of fire, and we can now reflect on improving the management of stained-glass windows after such a catastrophe.