Lost cloister yields treasures

Press, 7 December 1976, Page 24

Lost cloister yields treasures

AAP-Reuter Paris. A young French archaeologist has unearthed priceless mediaeval sculptures after a painstaking 12-year hunt despite official scepticism. It began in 1960 when Mr Leon Pressouyre was doing military service in the quiet little, eastern French town of Chalons-sur-Marne. A history graduate, Mr Pressouyre was interested in mediaeval art and his curiosity led him to the restored 12th century church of Notre-Dame-de-Vaux. There he learned that a priest had found several rare sculptures in the presbytery in 1935. The tip was all he needed to embark on a patient investigation that was to result in the discovery of possibly the finest 12th century Romanesque works of art to be found in Europe. On seeing one of the sculptures found in 1935 Mr Pressouyre was determined to discover the remains of the church’s cloister which had been destroyed in 1759 because canons at the time had found it ugly. Mr Pressouyre first went through-the archives of the town and questioned inhabitants living near the church.

He noted that stones from the destroyed cloister had been used to build the 18th century presbytery and several houses. He also learned that some sculptures found in the 19th century at Chalons-sur-Marne were now in the Louvre Museum, in the Van den Bergh Museum in Cleveland, Ohio, and in a private collection in Switzerland.

Mr Pressouyre asked French cultural authorities if some exploration could be made in and outside the church. The authorities were sceptical at first and refused permission. But luck was on his side. In 1961, a West German professor, Dr Willibald Sauerlander, spoke of the lost cloister during a congress on the history of art in New York and this was enough to convince French

officials that the church had to be explored. Mr Pressouyre started his exploration in 1963. Some 60 pieces of statues, columns and fragments of capitals were found in the walls surrounding the church garden. But for several years Mr Pressouyre and his wife Silvia were hampered in their work. The cultural authorites had no budget for a large-scale exploration and only allowed

them to dig during weekends.

Mr Pressouyre obtained permission to work full time on the spot in 1970 after the Cultural Affairs Minister (Mr Andre Malraux) had seen some fragments of the cloister in an exhibition of Gothic art works two years before.

All the sculptures had been broken into several pieces and Mr Pressouyre and his wife worked

patiently to reconstruct the many puzzles they had before them. “In fact,the destruction of the cloister was a good thing. It was destroyed methodically so that its stones could be used again,” Mr Pressouyre said.

He added: “This methodical destruction saved it from the French Revolution when anti-religious hatred resulted in the defacement of hundreds of statues.”