Editing Chartres Cathedral (section)

==Restoration==
From 1997 until 2018, the exterior of the cathedral underwent an extensive cleaning, that also included many of the interior walls and the sculpture. The statement of purpose declared, "the restoration aims not only to clean and maintains the structure but also to offer an insight into what the cathedral would have looked like in the 13th century." The walls and sculpture, blackened by soot and age, again became white. The celebrated [[Black Madonna]] statue was cleaned, and her face was found to be white under the soot. The project went further; the walls in the nave were painted white and shades of yellow and beige, to recreate an idea of the earlier medieval decoration.{{citation needed|date=January 2022}} However, the restoration also brought sharp criticism. The architectural critic of the ''New York Times'', Martin Filler, called it "a scandalous desecration of a cultural holy place."<ref>"A Controversial Restoration That Wipes Away the Past", ''The New York Times'', 1 September 2017</ref> He also noted that the bright white walls made it more difficult to appreciate the colours of the stained glass windows, and declared that the work violated international conservation protocols, in particular, the 1964 [[Venice Charter|Charter of Venice]] of which France is a signatory.<ref>Martin Filler, "A Scandalous Makeover at Chartres", ''New York Review of Books''. [http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/dec/14/scandalous-makeover-chartres/] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150203145405/http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2014/dec/14/scandalous-makeover-chartres/|date=3 February 2015}}</ref> The president of the Friends of Chartres Cathedral Isabelle Paillot defended the restoration work as necessary to prevent the building from crumbling.<ref name="Lichfield"/>