HOMELESS people are generally referred to in French culture as ‘sans domicile fixe’ or, to use a popular expression, lesSDF. But this time the controversy refers, at least among art and museum enthusiasts, to more than a thousand high quality and historical stone, bronze and plaster sculptures dumped together in the basement of an abandoned factory close to the river Seine.

The news itself could be surprising, but if you visit what appears from a distance as a gigantic rubbish pile, you are shocked to discover an unbelievable collection of great artistic creations projecting their shadows over one another under rays of light falling from high up windows.

Officials in charge of this unusual treasure insist that despite the apparent muddle every piece has been carefully classified with details, dates of creations and the sculptors’ names, all catalogued on computer files and in registers.

In truth, all the statues are not in perfect shape. It is both sad and amusing to see, for example, King Louis XIV lurching over a broken knee toward the controversial political hero Danton lying on the floor, as if trying to explain his being guillotined would after all be for the good of the country. At the same time you see the legendary stage actress Sarah Bernhardt sitting in a chair looking at the ceiling, as if wondering why her nose is missing.

Though it is impossible to demonstrate all these statues ranging from human dimensions to gigantic sizes in a single place, Christophe Leribault, the head of the Petit Palais museum in Paris has nevertheless taken a bold initiative to select about a hundred plaster works in an exhibition next year. Asked by a journalist if this collection could be qualified as a forgotten lot, he replied: “Not at all! Nothing is abandoned or forgotten. A simple explanation is the fact that when these works were created it was part of the city planners’ imagination to have them in public view. Most of these masterpieces came into being at the end of the 19th century and Paris of those days had them standing at every crossing point of the streets, not to speak of public parks and grand squares.”

“Things have changed today”, says Loire Valley journalist Jean Lavergeat. “Now when you plan a road you have to think of the traffic — cars, trucks and motorcycles included. When you build a park you cannot afford to ignore gaming grounds for children. You have to make room for more benches for ordinary working people too and not just for the limited bourgeoisie. That makes lesser and lesser space to have statues of kings and queens, philosophers and poets, military leaders and martyrs in public places.”

Another explanation for a large number of fallen statues, especially bronze ones, is German occupation during Second World War when Nazi forces had made it a point to efface the memories of all the French legendary figures. There were so many of them that they could not be definitively melted down by the occupants and today are part of the huge pile by the Seine.

Adding another point to the subject, Jean Lavergeat says: “Today while many Americans are trying to get rid of the statues of a number of heroes of their own past, we have to prove the French believe ideological conflicts can never change the history of a people. Whether adulated by the masses or guillotined by a mad crowd, whether a writer, a poet or a philosopher if not a war hero or a politician or a member of the royalty, a historical figure is part of our life and his or her statue will always remain a holy figure of our city, be it Gen Charles de Gaulle or Joan of Arc.”

The writer is a journalist based in Paris ZafMasud@gmail.com

Published in Dawn, October 1st, 2017