Résumé
The attribution of a portal in The Cloisters Museum (No. 25.120.878) to the church of the Poitevin priory of Saint-Jean de Bas-Nueil has never been fully convincing to experts. Moreover, the archival records concerning it present contradictions of a sort that prevent any firm conclusions. The question would have remained open but for the accidental find of the true Bas-Nueil portal in a private collection in 1995, in the course of research on the sculpture of the priory. At that point only a meticulous comparative stylistic analysis could identify the origin of portal No. 25.120.878. By a combination of documentary research and field work the abbey of Aiguevives was identified as a possible provenance. This conclusion was confirmed scientifically through neutron activation analysis, which showed that the composition of the stone of the portal in New York and at Aiguevives is the same.
