Virgin and Child in limestone, carved in high relief. With her head crowned, Mary carries her Son on her left side, while he grasps a flap of her veil with his right hand. Champagne, Reims, 16th century H. 37.8 cm - W. 20.9 cm - D. 16.7 cm (missing and damaged) A stained glass window and a sculpture, belonging for several generations to the Crété family, reputed to have come from Reims Cathedral: According to family tradition, the following stained glass window and carved limestone crowned Virgin were given to Lieutenant Georges Crété under very specific circumstances. This young lieutenant, from a family of eminent industrialists, engineer and son-in-law of President Paul Doumer, was in fact in Reims with his platoon on September 14, 1914, the fateful day when several shells fell on the city and the cathedral. Anxious to preserve France's artistic heritage, he instructed his men to help the clergymen dig through the monument's numerous debris in order to shelter the most remarkable pieces. This was done for several hours until nightfall, under threat of further bombardment. It was at the end of this day that a member of the cathedral clergy handed the lieutenant a fragment of a badly damaged Madonna and Child, urging him to accept this precious relic in gratitude for his courage and as a memento. George Crété accepts the gift and shows the cleric pieces of a stained glass window he thinks represents Joan of Arc, thinking of taking it back to Paris to give it to a master glassmaker for restoration. Take it away too," replies the priest. Its place is with you, in battle, to save France once again! ". Five days later, the cathedral was bombed again and burst into flames, causing many deaths among the wounded soldiers being cared for inside. Crété then sent his young wife, Lucile Doumer, the damaged sculpture and the pieces of stained glass that had been reassembled. She died in 1918, consumed by grief over the loss of four brothers in the Great War. Thus, these two religious works were carefully preserved for several decades in the office of Georges Crété, now an industrialist. Without questioning this tragic family history, art historians believe that the sculpture did not come from Reims Cathedral, but rather from a house nearby. As for the stained-glass window, although an 1857 book does indeed mention the presence of a stained-glass window depicting La Pucelle in Reims Cathedral, the cultural authorities are uncertain as to whether it once belonged to the monument. Patrick Demouy, Professor of Medieval History at the University of Reims. Be that as it may, these two works bear witness to tragic events that profoundly affected a country, a landmark monument of Christianity and a family that was painfully affected. Bibliography : - Abbé V. Tourneur, Histoire et description des vitraux et des statues de l'intérieur de la cathédrale de Reims, Reims, 1857, pp 18 & 19. - Des morceaux d'histoire en quête de retour" in L'Union, Reims regional daily newspaper, issue April 10, 2023, pp. 2 and 3.