Along the way you come across 250 personalities from the world of politics, entertainment and sport. Contemporary and from the past. From Emmanuel Macron to Xi Jinping and Queen Elizabeth II, from Michael Jackson to Lady Gaga, in a collection that obviously also includes the household stars famous all over the world, such as the stylist Jean-Paul Gaultier, the singer-songwriter Édith Piaf, the footballer Kylian Mbappé. Among them was, until yesterday, also the statue of the actor Gérard Depardieu.
Until yesterday, in fact. Because, in the wake of the controversies that have once again engulfed the actor and director with the French and Russian passport, the Musée Grévin, the historic wax museum in Paris, has decided to remove his sculpture. The decision was made by the museum’s management to the agency France Presswas taken following “the negative reactions of visitors as they pass in front of the wax statue depicting him and on our social channels”.
In recent days, an investigative report on Depardieu carried out by journalists from Additional Investigation (France 2) sparked a wave of shock and indignation across France, including from the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak. The program revealed new embarrassing footage from five years ago, when the actor went to North Korea to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the Pyongyang regime, filling his North Korean interpreter with sexist and sexual advances and jokes, with praise also on a 10 year old girl. Furthermore, at least sixteen women have accused the actor of sexual abuse, who since 2020 has been under investigation for rape against Charlotte Arnould and was accused more recently by the actress Hélène Darras in the context of an alleged sexual assault perpetrated in 2007 during filming of the film Disco.
In a speech published yesterday on Sunday newspaper, Depardieu’s family denounced an “unprecedented conspiracy”, deploring, in particular, a feeling of “collective anger” against him.
Gérard Depardieu awarded the Legion of Honor at the Elysée in 1996 by the then President of the Republic Jacques Chirac
(afp)
The decision of the Grévin Museum – created in 1882 on the initiative of the journalist Arthur Meyer and which welcomes 800,000 visitors a year – to withdraw the statue of Depardieu, inaugurated by the actor himself in 1981, comes after other positions taken in recent days. Including the one on the Legion of Honour, which the actor was awarded in 1996 by the then French president Jacques Chirac. After it was said on Friday that there would be “a meeting of the bar council” which would initiate “a disciplinary procedure to decide whether” the recognition “should be suspended or not, withdrawn completely or not”, on Saturday the actor had decided to put his Legion of Honor “at the disposal” of the French Minister of Culture, who had harshly criticized him, speaking of his attitude, revealed by France 2, as “a shame” for the country.
Also on Saturday, Estaimpuis, a Belgian municipality in the Walloon province of Hainaut, decided to withdraw the honorary citizenship it had given to Depardieu ten years ago.