A brand new and very beautiful statue of Saint Joan of Arc was
inaugurated on 23 October by the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi.
The monumental work in bronze, gilded with fine gold, weighs 9 tonnes, is 4.50 metres high and cost 170,000 euros.
But
on Wednesday, the administrative court of Nice, at the instigation of
the prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, Hugues Moutouh, ordered the city to
remove the statue.
The pretext for the removal: The court ruled that the contract had been awarded without advertising or competition.
The
Nice city council replied that the specificity of a work of art is that
it is unique, and that if you want to decorate a wall with a Piéta by
Botticelli, you don't buy a Piéta by Enguerrand Quarton.
An appeal against the ruling has no suspensive effect and the statue must be removed immediately.
The same court, which heard the case under an expedited procedure, took the opposite view in a ruling on 23 February.
The
masterpiece, which depicts Joan of Arc on horseback brandishing a
sword, had been erected in the municipal garden above a new underground
car park near the church of Sainte-Jeanne d'Arc in the centre of Nice.
Mayor Estrosi has accused the Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes, Hugues Moutouh, of 'attacking the figure of Joan of Arc'.
At
a time when France is struggling to find its bearings in a period of
unprecedented instability, its representative is attacking the figure of
Joan of Arc, which we wanted to embody by erecting a bronze statue in
front of the church dedicated to the heroine,' he said.
Gaël
Nofri, chairman of the Parcs d'Azur public service, commented on
Twitter: "Making a statue of Joan of Arc out of bronze probably poses
more problems than making a bust of Che Guevara out of used toilet
paper."
The Missor studio, which created the masterpiece, was set
up in response to woke extremism and its iconoclasm. Some sectarian
circles don't like Joan of Arc because she doesn't stand for decadence.
Meanwhile,
Christian Estrosi has launched a fund-raising campaign to save the
statue of Joan of Arc. It will be placed in front of the church of
Sainte-Jeanne d'Arc.
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