Debate Returns over the Opera Ceiling Hidden beneath Chagall

Marc Chagall’s Paris Opera ceiling, installed in 1964, is again contested as supporters seek renewed visibility for Jules-Eugène Lenepveu’s painting preserved beneath it. Because both works physically survive, the question is not destruction but which period gets to remain visible. The debate reminds us that preservation is never wholly neutral and that an architectural history can be reduced too easily to one iconic image.