Row over Paris opera house ceiling reignites with lawsuit threat

Descendant of 19-century artist demands removal of Marc Chagall's 1960s canvases that cover original fresco

In 1962, the then French culture minister, Andre Malraux, reportedly bored by the ballet he was watching at Paris's opera house, raised his eyes to the classical ceiling and determined it needed a makeover.

In his ennui, Malraux decided his friend and artist Marc Chagall, sitting next to him at the Palais Garnier at the time, was the man for the job and commissioned him to make a new ceiling.