Latest news with #PèreLachaise
Washington Post
21-05-2025
- Washington Post
Bust of Doors singer Jim Morrison that was stolen nearly 40 years ago has been recovered
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. The bust taken in 1988 from Père-Lachaise cemetery was found during an unrelated investigation conducted by a financial anti-corruption unit, Paris police said in an Instagram post Monday.
The Independent
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Independent
Bust of Doors singer Jim Morrison that was stolen nearly 40 years ago has been recovered
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. The bust taken in 1988 from Père-Lachaise cemetery was found during an unrelated investigation conducted by a financial anti-corruption unit, Paris police said in an Instagram post Monday. There was no immediate word on whether the bust would be returned to the grave or what other investigation might take place. 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. He was buried at Père-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. The 300-pound bust made by Croatian sculptor Mladen Mikulin was added to the grave in 1981 for the 10th anniversary of the singer's death. '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.' 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. 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. 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. '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.' Morrison cofounded the Doors in Los Angeles in 1965 with Ray Manzarek. Robby Krieger and John Densmore joined soon after. The band and its frontman burned brightly but briefly, releasing albums including 'The Doors' 'Strange Days," and 'Morrison Hotel, whose The California site that gave that album its name and cover image was seriously damaged in a fire last year. After their final album, 1971's 'L.A. Woman,' Morrison moved to Paris. His cause of death was listed as heart failure, though no autopsy was performed as none was required by law. Disputes and myths have surrounded the death and added to his mystique.
Associated Press
20-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Associated Press
Bust of Doors singer Jim Morrison that was stolen nearly 40 years ago has been recovered
PARIS (AP) — 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. The bust taken in 1988 from Père-Lachaise cemetery was found during an unrelated investigation conducted by a financial anti-corruption unit, Paris police said in an Instagram post Monday. There was no immediate word on whether the bust would be returned to the grave or what other investigation might take place. 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. He was buried at Père-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. The 300-pound bust made by Croatian sculptor Mladen Mikulin was added to the grave in 1981 for the 10th anniversary of the singer's death. '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.' 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. 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. 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. '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.' Morrison cofounded the Doors in Los Angeles in 1965 with Ray Manzarek. Robby Krieger and John Densmore joined soon after. The band and its frontman burned brightly but briefly, releasing albums including 'The Doors' 'Strange Days,' and 'Morrison Hotel, whose The California site that gave that album its name and cover image was seriously damaged in a fire last year. After their final album, 1971's 'L.A. Woman,' Morrison moved to Paris. His cause of death was listed as heart failure, though no autopsy was performed as none was required by law. Disputes and myths have surrounded the death and added to his mystique.
Times
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Times
The end of a 40-year search as Jim Morrison's stolen bust is found
When Jim Morrison was buried at the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris in 1971, gravekeepers struggled to maintain order. Fans of the Doors' lead singer tried to spend the night with their idol, drinking alcohol, smoking pot, having sex and lighting fires above his remains. Many would leave in the morning with part of his tomb, which is how it is assumed that in 1988 Morrison's bust went missing. Officials responded by putting up fencing around his grave and employing guards to ensure that fans left at nightfall. But they gave up the 128kg bust sculpted by Mladen Mikulin, a Croatian artist, as lost. Now, however, the work created for the tenth anniversary of the singer's death has reappeared. French police are claiming credit for
The Guardian
19-05-2025
- Entertainment
- The Guardian
Jim Morrison's long-lost graveside bust turns up during French police search
Carved out of white marble and covered in graffiti, the hefty bust disappeared in 1988. Now, 37 years later, the doe-eyed sculpture that once adorned the grave of the American singer Jim Morrison has been found, in what Paris prosecutors described as a 'chance discovery'. Police in France said they had been carrying out a search related to a fraud case when they happened to stumble upon the bust of the frontman of The Doors. The announcement, made on social media on Monday, was accompanied by a photo showing the graying sculpture still covered in graffiti and missing a chunk of its nose, reportedly sliced off by souvenir hunters before its disappearance. Conceived as a tribute to Morrison, the sculpture was carved after his death by the Croatian artist Mladen Mikulin. It was placed at his grave at Paris's Père-Lachaise cemetery in 1981, 10 years after the singer died in the French capital at the age of 27. While the exact circumstances of Morrison's death remain shrouded in mystery, most early accounts say the singer died of cardiac arrest in his bathtub. From its perch on top of Morrison's headstone, the statue welcomed the throngs of visitors who came to snap photos, lay flowers and – prior to the hiring of a guard to watch the site – smoke pot and party with one of Père-Lachaise's most famous residents. Seven years after the bust was placed at the site, it disappeared. Rumours swirled over what might have happened; some spoke of two fans who had managed to cart off the bust, reportedly weighing 128kg, on a moped in the middle of the night, others repeated the seemingly baseless claim that authorities had hidden the sculpture in order to protect it. In 1994, after years had gone by without any sign of the sculpture, two Americans were arrested for attempting to erect their own bronze version of the bust at Morrison's grave site. Todd Mitchell, who said he had travelled from Utah and spent thousands of dollars of his own retirement fund to resurrect the bust, said the security guard was initially confused when he came across him and his nephew scrambling to bolt the bust to Morrison's headstone in the dark. 'He just looked dumbfounded … Most people are destroying stuff in that cemetery,' Mitchell told the Salt Lake Tribune in 1994. On Monday, as fans of Morrison celebrated what police described on social media as an 'unusual discovery', there was little news on whether the bust would be returned to Morrison's tomb. 'The police haven't contacted us, so I don't know whether the bust will be returned to us,' Benoît Gallot, the curator of the Père-Lachaise cemetery, told Le Figaro.
