As the new year begins, another theft surfaces. On Friday, January 2, a man was apprehended in Paris for allegedly detaching and taking the sword from a statue of Joan of Arc at the Place Saint-Augustin, located in the 8th arrondissement, during daylight hours.
This sculpture, a bronze replica of Paul Dubois’s 19th-century depiction of the revered national figure, portrays Joan of Arc in armor, mounted on a horse, with her iconic sword raised aloft.
Karen Taïeb, Paris’s deputy mayor responsible for heritage and religious affairs, informed the French media outlet Le Parisien that surveillance footage depicts the individual “forcefully shaking the horse, then scaling the statue and snapping the sword with his hands.”
The individual managed to take the sword, which broke into several pieces, but was halted by a nearby police patrol. Although the sword was retrieved following the man’s detention, it remains uncertain if the bronze piece can be restored or must be recreated from scratch.
The suspect is slated for a behavioral evaluation, and the 8th arrondissement has lodged a formal complaint concerning the event, according to reports.
