Latest news with #PereLachaise
National Post
22-05-2025
- Entertainment
- National Post
Jim Morrison bust stolen from his Paris grave in 1988 has been found
Article content PARIS — Police have found a bust of Jim Morrison that was stolen nearly four decades ago from the Paris grave that has long been a place of pilgrimage for fans of the legendary Doors singer and poet. Article content Article content The bust taken in 1988 from Pere-Lachaise cemetery was found during an unrelated investigation conducted by a financial anti-corruption unit, Paris police said in an Instagram post Monday. Article content There was no immediate word on whether the bust would be returned to the grave or what other investigation might take place. Article content Article content Morrison, the singer of Doors classics including Light My Fire, Break on Through and The End, was found dead in a Paris bathtub at age 27 in 1971. Article content He was buried at Pere-Lachaise, the city's cemetery that is the final resting place of scores of artists, writers and other cultural luminaries including Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein and Edith Piaf. Article content The 135-kilogram bust made by Croatian sculptor Mladen Mikulin was added to the grave in 1981 for the 10th anniversary of the singer's death. Article content 'I think it would be incredible if they put the bust back onto where it was and it would attract so many more people, but the cemetery wouldn't even be able to hold that many people,' Paris tour guide Jade Jezzini told The Associated Press. 'The amount of people who would rush in here just to see the bust to take pictures of it, it would be incredible.' Article content Article content Known for his dark lyrics, wavy locks, leather pants, theatrical stage presence and mystical manner, Morrison has inspired generations of acolytes who congregate at his grave to reflect and sometimes to party, including a major gathering for the 50th anniversary of his death. The site has often been covered with flowers, poetic graffiti and liquor bottles left in tribute. Article content He was undergoing a cultural renaissance when the bust was stolen in the late 1980s, which peaked with the 1991 Oliver Stone film The Doors, in which Val Kilmer, who died in April, played Morrison. Article content Article content London artist Sam Burcher recently returned to the now more subdued grave site that she first visited 40 years ago when the sculpture of Morrison was still in place. Article content 'The bust was much smaller than all of these grand tombs. It was very modest, so I was quite surprised by that,' she told the AP. 'But the other thing was the atmosphere, it was buzzing. There were people partying, smoking, music, dancing, and then I brought strawberries and kind of gave them out to everyone … it was just such an amazing experience.'
CTV News
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CTV News
Jim Morrison bust found in France, 37 years after theft
Members of the Doors, from left, John Densmore, Robbie Krieger, Ray Manzarek and Jim Morrison, pose for a portrait. (AP) PARIS, France -- French police have recovered by chance the long-lost bust of American singer Jim Morrison that once adorned the grave of the iconic frontman of The Doors, 37 years after it was stolen from a Paris cemetery. The sculpture, missing since 1988, was found during a search tied to a fraud case led by the Paris public prosecutor's office, a source close to the investigation told AFP. Nostalgic rock fans still flock to Morrison's grave at Paris's Pere Lachaise cemetery, where he was buried after his death in the French capital in 1971 at the age of 27. The sculpture, by Croatian artist Mladen Mikulin, had been placed at the grave to mark the 10th anniversary of Morrison's death. It was found by the financial and anti-corruption brigade of the judicial police department of the police. The exact circumstances of the singer's death are still shrouded in mystery, with most early accounts saying he died of cardiac arrest in his bathtub. A French journalist, Sam Bernett, claimed in a 2007 book that close friends and family spun the official version of Morrison's death to sanitise his reputation. Bernett said Morrison actually died from a heroin overdose on the toilet of a nightclub that the journalist owned at the time, the 'Rock 'n' Roll Circus' on Paris's Left Bank. The Doors, founded in Los Angeles, were among the most influential rock groups of the late 1960s and early '70s and a mainstay of the counterculture of the times. Their hits include 'Riders on the Storm', 'Light My Fire' and 'The End', a haunting song that features prominently in Francis Ford Coppola's 1979 Vietnam war movie 'Apocalypse Now'. In February, Paris named a bridge after the iconic singer, located just steps from the bohemian Marais district where he last lived.
South China Morning Post
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- South China Morning Post
The Doors' Jim Morrison bust found in France, 37 years after theft from Paris graveyard
French police have recovered by chance the long-lost bust of American singer Jim Morrison that once adorned the grave of the iconic frontman of The Doors, 37 years after it was stolen from a Paris cemetery. Advertisement The sculpture, missing since 1988, was found during a search tied to a fraud case led by the Paris public prosecutor's office, a source close to the investigation told Agence France-Presse. Nostalgic rock fans still flock to Morrison's grave at Paris's Pere Lachaise cemetery , where he was buried after his death in the French capital in 1971 at the age of 27. The sculpture, by Croatian artist Mladen Mikulin, had been placed at the grave to mark the 10th anniversary of Morrison's death. It was found by the financial and anti-corruption brigade of the judicial police department of the police. The tomb of Jim Morrison at Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, in August 2023. Photo: AFP The exact circumstances of the singer's death are still shrouded in mystery, with most early accounts saying he died of cardiac arrest in his bathtub.
