Archaeologists have extracted no less than 1035 elements of the medieval rood screen which separated, until the 17th century, the nave from the choir. This immense Parisian limestone partition was entirely sculpted and depicted the Passion of Christ.
With the exception of a handful of elements taken by Viollet-le-Duc and presented at the Louvre, the trace of almost the entirety of this 13th century ensemble was lost. The Minister of Culture, who discovered the exhumed remains on Friday, assured that the law governing preventive excavations would not be modified. It is in this secure and secret enclosure in the greater Parisian suburbs that some of the most beautiful treasures of Notre-Dame de Paris are kept. They are arranged in wooden boxes for the most important pieces (up to 400 kilos) and sometimes simple padded plastic boxes. Even more impressive: many pieces, which have not yet been cleared of their matrix of sand and sediment, present colors of remarkable freshness.