a “cowardly and scandalous” act, according to the president of the departmental council of Indre-et-Loire

A work representing the Emir Abdelkader was vandalized on the night of Friday January 4 to Saturday January 5 in Amboise, Indre-et-Loire. It was to be inaugurated on Saturday morning. “A police investigation is underway”specifies to franceinfo Laurent Vignaud sub-prefect of Chinon.

“The statue was damaged, pieces of the monument were twisted”, says Laurent Vignaud. A monument “erected in a desire for rapprochement between France and Algeria following the publication of the report by Benjamin Stora on the memory of colonization and the war in Algeria”, he continues. It indicates that “These facts have been reported in higher places”.

This work by the Touraine artist Michel Audiard was dedicated to one of the founders of modern Algeria, “became a man of peace, friend of France”, according to the president of the departmental council of Indre-et-Loire. He was imprisoned by France from 1848 to 1852 at the Château d’Amboise.

The president of the departmental council, Jean-Gérard Paumier (LR), condemns at the microphone of franceinfo “cowardly and outrageous vandalism”.

“The tribute of memory that was planned has become a tribute of combat against stupidity and hatred.”

Jean-Gérard Paumier, president of the departmental council

at franceinfo

“Abdelkader was a man of dialogue between East and West”insists Jean-Gérard Paumier.

Asked by France Inter, the mayor of Amboise, Thierry Boutard, said he had “I was ashamed that we treat a work of art and an artist of this kind. The second feeling is of course indignation”he said. “It’s a day of harmony that must unite and such behavior is unspeakable”he concludes.