A sculpture of the late American singer and poet Jim Morrison that went missing from his gravesite in Paris almost four decades ago has been found, according to French police.
“After 37 years of absence, the bust of Jim Morrison, stolen in 1988 from the Père Lachaise cemetery, has been found,” wrote the Paris Regional Judicial Police Directorate in an Instagram post on Friday.
It added that “this iconic symbol for the singer’s fans was recovered” during an investigation conducted by the Financial and Anti-Corruption Brigade, under the authority of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office.
“This was a chance discovery made during a search ordered by an examining magistrate at the Paris court,” the prosecutor’s office told CNN in a statement Tuesday.
Jeff Jampol, manager of the Jim Morrison Estate, told CNN in a statement Tuesday that they were “happy to hear” of the statue’s rediscovery, adding: “Obviously it’s a piece of history, and one Jim’s family wanted there on his grave, so it’s gratifying to see that it’s been recovered.”
“Now we’ll have to see what kind of shape the bust is in,” he continued.
Morrison, the charismatic frontman of 1960s psychedelic rock band The Doors, died in 1971, aged just 27.
His grave in the French capital attracts many music fans.
Resting in the Père Lachaise cemetery, it is one of the most popular graves in Paris, according to the city’s official tourism website, with crowds gathering there on the anniversary of his death on July 3 every year.
The bust, created by Croatian sculptor Mladen Mikulin, was installed on his tombstone on the 10th anniversary of his death, according to the official city of Paris website. However, it disappeared in 1988.
The grave’s headstone, which was damaged in the 1980s, was replaced by his parents in 1990 with the epitaph “True to His Spirit” written on it in Greek.
On the 20th anniversary of Morrison’s death in 1991, police had to disperse fans from the cemetery with tear gas due to unruly behaviour.
By the 30th anniversary, alcohol and music had been banned, but thousands still turned up to his plot to lay wreaths and take photos.
“Every day, somewhere in the world, a Doors song is played,” said former Doors keyboardist Ray Manzarek at the time. “The energy of Jim Morrison is still with us, in the ether.”
Morrison, who was also known as “The Lizard King,” developed a reputation for his heavy alcohol drinking and shocking onstage antics.
Morrison left the band in 1971 to focus on writing poetry and he moved to Paris with his girlfriend, Pamela Courson.
However, he died in their Paris apartment later that year.
Courson told authorities that she had found the singer dead in the bathtub.
His cause of death is officially recorded as being heart failure but no autopsy was conducted, prompting conspiracy theories.
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