Prized Notre-Dame tapestry out of danger after water worries

A rare royal tapestry housed at Notre-Dame cathedral in Paris has been spared the water damage officials feared, after firefighters doused the great mediaeval edifice to extinguish last April’s devastating blaze. The huge tapestry, finished under the reign of king Louis Philippe in 1838, was evacuated from the gothic monument just days after the fire. It had been stored in two parts in trunks — which protected it from the molten lead falling from the roof, which was destroyed along with the steeple in the April 15 disaster. But the tapestry had soaked up huge amounts of water, which swelled its weight to three tonnes from just one tonne when it was handed over to France’s Mobilier National, which oversees the country’s collection of valuable furniture and artworks. “Rolled up, it would have been a bacterial soup” that could have quickly started rotting, said Herve Lemoine, head of the Mobilier National.