“Indignation”, “shame”, “cowardice”. There was no shortage of words this Saturday morning in Amboise (Indre-et-Loire) after the discovery of the degradation of the sculpture entitled Passage Abdelkader, which was to be inaugurated at 11 a.m. This work for the 60th anniversary of Algeria’s independence was proposed by historian Benjamin Stora in his report on “Memorial questions relating to colonization and the Algerian war”, submitted to Emmanuel Macron in January 2021 .
Signed by the Touraine artist Michel Audiard, representing the emir cut out of a sheet of rusty steel, the work is a tribute to the Algerian national hero, detained in Amboise from 1848 to 1852. “The work was in perfect condition since its installation ten days ago. The municipal police noted this morning, a little after 8 a.m., the damage. There is no claim, ”said the squadron leader of the gendarmerie Hugues Loyez. Attacked with a grinder, the sculpture will be “restored and redone”, indicates the town hall, the artist estimating that a month would be necessary.
Investigation opened for “serious degradation of property intended for the public utility”
“It really is a premeditated rampage. You need a grinder, you have to cut, you have to twist. It’s an act of cowardice (…), it’s not signed, it’s free. We were there to celebrate an emblematic character in tolerance and there it is an intolerant act. I am appalled, ”said Michel Audiard.
“I was ashamed that we treat a work of art and an artist of this kind. The second feeling is of course outrage. It’s a day of harmony that must unite and such behavior is unspeakable, ”testifies the mayor (DVD) Thierry Boutard. “Let us remember what unites us. The Republic will erase no trace or name from its history. She will not forget any of her works. She will not unbolt statues, ”condemned Emmanuel Macron.
The inauguration was held in front of a hundred people, their hearts suddenly heavier on a sunny day which was to be placed under the seal of the reconciliation of France and Algeria. “It’s a shame and at the same time it’s not surprising with the hate speech, the current nauseating climate”, comments Ouassila Soum, 37-year-old Franco-Algerian, seeing in this stele “a symbol of rapprochement between peoples and civilizations”.
Historian Benjamin Stora denounced the “obscurantism and ignorance” of those who vandalized the work. “Emir Abdelkader had several lives. He fought against France, of course, but he was also a friend of France. Those who made this gesture know nothing about the history of France, they are illiterate, uneducated who do not know what the emir was, ”he regrets. The prosecutor of Tours Grégoire Dulin announced the opening of an investigation for “serious damage to property intended for public utility and belonging to a public person”.