French contemporary artist Claire Tabouret has been commissioned to create six new stained-glass windows for the Notre-Dame de Paris cathedral, replacing six existing 19th-century grisaille windows designed by architect Eugène-Emmanuel Viollet-le-Duc. The project, announced by President Emmanuel Macron and the Archbishop of Paris as a "contemporary gesture" following the 2019 fire, has sparked a major public and institutional controversy, with a petition against it gathering over 335,000 signatures.
The controversy, dubbed the "stained-glass quarrel," centers on the removal of undamaged historic windows from a UNESCO World Heritage site, raising legal and heritage conservation questions under the Venice Charter. Opponents, including France's national heritage commission and the Académie des Beaux-Arts, see it as an erasure of history and a political vanity project, while supporters argue Notre-Dame has always integrated new art and that the 19th-century windows are not medieval relics, making them suitable for replacement with a vibrant, figurative depiction of the Pentecost.