The hearing was held on September 14 at the Avignon Criminal Court. The graffiti artist Lekto appeared for “insulting, incitement to hatred and racial discrimination” for the creation of a fresco caricaturing Jacques Attali as a puppeteer manipulating an Emmanuel Macron-Pinocchio. A work seeming to take up the aesthetic codes of anti-Semitic posters from the 1930s. The prosecutor had requested a fine of 6,000 euros, including 2,000 suspended. Before the deliberation expected this Thursday, 20 minutes reminds you of the facts.
A reaction fresco
Painted at the end of June 2022 on a large, clearly visible wall in Avignon (Vaucluse) which is then preparing to receive the many artists and spectators of its theater festival, the work, called “The beast 2, the “event”, sparked numerous reactions and a certain excitement on social networks.
Immediately, the organizations of the Jewish Defense League and the Union of Jewish Students of France denounced the anti-Semitic nature of this achievement. The prefecture immediately requested the removal of this fresco, which the Greater Avignon agglomeration, owner of the wall, agreed to, after a period of hesitation in the name of freedom of expression.
Although deleted on June 24, a handful of days after its appearance, the economist and advisor to presidents Jacques Attali, also of Jewish faith, filed a complaint against Lekto.
What was said at the hearing?
On the stand, the 31-year-old graffiti artist defended himself against any anti-Semitism. “I’m just making visual puns. It is you who essentialize Jacques Attali to his religion,” he declared according to comments reported by France Bleu. The eight lawyers for the civil parties, who had summoned two historians, came to detail the codes of the anti-Semitic posters from the interwar period included in this fresco, emphasizing that Lekto could not ignore them.
What are his works?
His Instagram account, created in 2020, relays his various caricatures that he has created. The one that landed him in court therefore represents Macron and Attali, but others are devoted to Marlène Schiappa, Gérald Darmanin, Sandrine Rousseau. Some still attack media personalities such as Hanouna and Edwy Plenel. Finally, other subjects as varied as the cook Maïté, Maradona, or even Coluche and even Guy Roux passed under the curves of his spray paint.
In February 2023, another of his frescoes depicting an Emmanuel Macron wearing a 49.3 as a Hitler mustache, once again made headlines.