Efforts to salvage art from Notre-Dame continue as Macron vows to rebuild

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Efforts to salvage art from Notre-Dame continue as Macron vows to rebuild | The French president Emmanuel Macron stated last night (15 April) that the cathedral of Notre-Dame in Paris will be rebuilt after it was seriously damaged by fire. A national fundraising campaign was launched this morning in aid of the restoration, and hundreds of millions of euros have already been pledged by private donors. As police and fire officials prepare to assess the principal stone structure of the cathedral for any weaknesses sustained during the fire, efforts to determine the extent of the damage to artworks and fixtures inside the cathedral are also ongoing; according to Le Monde, the status of the 13th-century rose windows and the great organ remains uncertain. The French culture minister Franck Riester has confirmed that a number of religious relics salvaged, including the crown of thorns and the tunic of Saint Louis, are being held securely in the Hôtel de Ville. There are also plans to remove paintings in the cathedral – which are presently believed to have sustained some damage from smoke but to have remained largely intact – to the Louvre later this week.

American Museum of Natural History cancels Bolsonaro event | A black-tie gala in honour of Jair Bolsonaro, the president of Brazil, which was scheduled to take place at the American Museum of Natural History in Washington, D.C., has been cancelled by mutual agreement between the museum and the event organisers from the Brazilian-American Chamber of Commerce. The museum faced criticism last week from climate activists and public officials including the mayor of New York City, Bill de Blasio, who pointed to the Brazilian leader’s ‘overt racism and homophobia’, as well as his deregulation of protections for the Amazon rainforest.