No place for John Paul II in Paris: French authorities abandon Russian sculptor’s statue

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Published time: December 20, 2012 13:46
Edited time: December 20, 2012 18:37

French authorities are at a loss; they can’t fit a bronze statue of John Paul II into Paris. Weighing 1.5 tons, it’s the work of Russian Zurab Tsereteli whose signature sculptures can be 80 meters tall.

­ French authorities are at a loss; they can’t fit a bronze statue of John Paul II into Paris. Weighing 1.5 tons, it’s the work of Russian Zurab Tsereteli whose signature sculptures can be 80 meters tall.

­It's been three years since the 3.6 meter high statue was abandoned in the French capital, reportedly due to a disagreement between the Mayor’s Office and the Polish Catholic mission.

They failed to agree on where the sculpture would be placed.

According to Le Figaro in 2010 the Rector of the Polish mission in France, Msgr Jez, offered to erect the statue on the steps of the Polish Church of Notre-Dame de l’Assomption. Local authorities didn’t have to pay a dime, but replied that the project had first to appear before a committee of art in the city.

­The final verdict wasn’t made until April this year. The committee said that for aesthetic reasons the sculpture was not compatible with the architectural style of the historic Notre-Dame de l’Assomption, according to the French daily.

"This statue was designed in respect to the church!” Msgr Stanislaw Jez protested.

“The artist [Tsereteli] has studied everything so that it fitted well into the space," he told Le Figaro.

Paris Mayor’s Office replied, however: “It is not up to a private architect to decide the location of a statue in the public domain."

A bronze monument to the late Pope John Paul II by Zurab Tsereteli erected in France, Ploermel (Bretagne), in 2006.

­The long dispute made Le Figaro wonder whether the problem is in fact religious.

"Absolutely not,” the City stated. “It is not a matter of principle but technical suitability. We continue the dialogue but the results are not guaranteed,” the Mayor’s Office replied.

While Tsereteli’s sculpture has been gathering dust in a Parisian cellar, five thousand signatures have been collected by local residents calling on the authorities to find a place for the statue in Paris.

“John Paul II was an extraordinary man, full of charisma, a diplomat who came to France several times. In my opinion, being against this project reveals a clear ideological obstacle," Msgr Stanislaw Jez said.

In fact, it’s not Tsereteli’s first statue to John Paul II. The other one can be found in Ploermel, in north-western France.

Several years ago the sculptor received the highest decoration of France: the Legion of Honor. Paris has been one of the major influences in the artist’s life. In the 1960s, Tsereteli was friends with Pablo Picasso and Marc Chagall.

­The 78-year-old sculptor has also produced some of Russia’s most debatable sculptures. Tsereteli is known for huge public monuments which can be found almost anywhere in the world, from New York, Tokyo and Rome, to Damascus, Montevideo and Ulan Bator. His signature sculptures are dedicated to Holocaust victims; children; cosmonauts; writers; human right activists and historic figures.

Tsereteli’s colossal statue of Christopher Columbus, however, was rejected by at least five American cities before ending up in Puerto Rico.

'To the Struggle Against World Terrorism' Memorial in Bayonne, NJ (AFP Photo / Getty Images)

Project 'Europe' is to be 300 meters high and built in Moscow.

­It’s also hard to miss the monument to Tsar Peter the Great on a curve in the Moscow River, south of the Kremlin. Soaring almost a hundred meters into the sky, it was erected in 1997 to mark 300 years since the founding of the Russian Navy. Its price tag – allegedly between $11 and $20 million of public money – long remained the talk of the town.

The monument to Peter the Great is on Bersenyevskaya embankment. 94m high monument to Peter the Great made by Zurab Tseretelli can be moved from a spit in the Moscow-River (RIA Novosti / Pavel Lysizin)

Monument to Honore De Balzac in Agde (France)

This imposing bronze statue was made by sculptor Zurab Zereteh and donated by the Russian government to the City of Rome in 2002