• Ethiopia on Thursday confirmed that a cross offered to the Notre-Dame Cathedral by HIH Haile Selassie in 1954 was among the special pieces of history that survived a blaze that ravaged the cathedral.

    Emmanuel Besnier, Deputy Head of Mission at the Embassy of France in Ethiopia, confirmed on Twitter that the cross offered by His Imperial Highness Haile Selassie had since been moved to the Louvre Museum.

    “We can now confirm, with great relief, that the #Ethiopian cross offered to #NotreDame cathedral in 1954 by HIH Haile Selassie has been spared from this week’s fire and is now safe at the Le Louvre museum,” he wrote.

    France continues to count the cost of losses after the Tuesday evening blaze. Experts are still assessing the damage. The cathedral was home to artefacts that detail 850 years of history with symbolisms for more than eight centuries it has been in existence.

    Its construction began at the beginning of the 12th century and lasted more than a hundred years. The 850th anniversary of Notre-Dame was celebrated in 2013.