After being tagged, his portrait was covered with a plaque on the Lyonnais fresco. (Photo by Henrique Campos / Hans Lucas / Hans Lucas via AFP)
Abbé Pierre was erased this Friday from the famous Lyonnais fresco, a week after the holding of the citizens' committee which was to decide whether or not to remain on the fresco.
After weeks of controversy, the City of Lyon decided to draw a line under Abbé Pierre. As our colleagues from Le Progrès were able to observe, Abbé Pierre disappeared this Friday from the famous fresco of the Lyonnais in the 1st arrondissement of the city. A week after the holding of a citizens' committee which was to decide whether or not to maintain the portrait on the fresco, the City made the decision to remove it.
Since the revelations of sexual assault accusations concerning the man of the church who died in 2007, the controversy has grown. On September 29, the word “rapist” was spray painted on the Lyonnais fresco before his portrait was covered with a sign explaining that the City would make a decision in the coming weeks.
Who to replace him?
It is now done. A painter from the Cité Création collective, at the origin of the fresco which brings together many personalities from Lyon, retouched the wall, making Abbé Pierre disappear from the painting. For now, no one has taken his place, the painter revealing the staircase behind his portrait.
It remains to be seen in the coming months whether the City will decide to renovate the work more generally and install another Lyon personality in place of Abbé Pierre. The Mouv'Enfants association had notably proposed to the City to replace Abbé Pierre with Lucie Aubrac, a communist resistance fighter from Lyon during the Second World War.
In any case, after deciding to rename Place Abbé Pierre in the 9th arrondissement, the municipality has definitively drawn a line under this Lyon figure accused of numerous sexual assaults.
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