The fresco representing Emmanuel Macron as a puppet manipulated by the economist Jacques Attali, in a parking lot in Avignon, was completely covered, Friday June 24, in the morning. Since Wednesday, the controversy has swelled over this representation deemed anti-Semitic.
“Following the emotional reactions and the growing controversy aroused by the fresco of the graffiti artist Lekto located in the parking lot of the Italians in Avignon, the prefect of Vaucluse exchanged yesterday with the president of Grand Avignon, owner of the place, in order to agree to the deletion of this fresco. This operation was carried out this very morning”said the prefecture in an email to Agence France-Presse (AFP).
“Faced with the very many reactions aroused by the fresco by street artist Lekto, suddenly the subject of a controversy very widely relayed by social networks, the Greater Avignon urban community has, since yesterday afternoon , took the decision to cover the facade of the building concerned which belongs to it”, had a few moments earlier announced in a press release the Avignon agglomeration. The fresco had already been partially covered, anonymously, overnight from Thursday to Friday, recalled the urban community.
Freedoms of expression and interpretation
The agglomeration and the city of Avignon, led by the socialist Cécile Helle, had, Thursday, refused to erase the fresco, according to France Blue Vauclusein the name of freedom of expression and interpretation. “Everyone can interpret the image as they want, since there are no words on this wall”, had then estimated the Grand Avignon, owner of the building on which frescoes of the genre follow one another, at the northern entrance to the city. They would have finally changed their minds in the face of “the insistence of the prefect”had specified the radio.
“The interpretation of this fresco leaves little doubt. The figure of the Jewish banker manipulating his puppets is a recurring representation of anti-Semites. Anti-Semitism is that plague bacillus that always reappears. No weakness is tolerable”had reacted on Twitter the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure. Contacted by AFP, the town hall of Avignon did not react on Friday.
On the wall of this car park, Emmanuel Macron was represented as Pinocchio, operated by Jacques Attali. The latter, adviser to several Presidents of the Republic, is reputed to be close to the President. The work represents him with a worrying gaze, his hands above the puppet he is handling. At the foot of the building, the work is titled: The Beast 2.
Claiming that she disappear, the Jewish Defense League considered in particular that anti-Semitic symbols were present in the fresco: “The Jewish and influential personality (here Jacques Attali), (…) the worrying look [et les] hands that operate puppets, understand: they belong to those who run the world. » the American Jewish Committee had also requested that the painting be erased.