<P> The head was collected by the abbot Thinot the day after the fire, and stored in the cellars of the Archbishop of Reims to be discovered by the architect Max Sainsaulieu on the 30 November 1915 . It became an icon for the French wartime propaganda as a symbol of "French culture destroyed by German barbarity". </P> <P> After the war, the original fragments were molded and preserved in the Musée national des Monuments Français, the already famous sculpture was restored and put back in place 13 February 1926 . </P>

The smiling angel of the city of reims