Jim Morrison bust stolen from Doors singer’s Paris grave in the ‘80s has finally been recovered
PARIS (AP) — Police have found a bust of Jim Morrison that was stolen nearly four decades ago from the Paris grave that has long been a place of pilgrimage for fans of the legendary Doors singer and poet.
The bust taken in 1988 from Père-Lachaise cemetery was found during an unrelated investigation conducted by a financial anti-corruption unit, Paris police said in an Instagram post Monday.
There was no immediate word on whether the bust would be returned to the grave or what other investigation might take place.
Morrison, the singer of Doors classics including “Light My Fire,” “Break on Through,” and “The End,” was found dead in a Paris bathtub at age 27 in 1971.
He was buried at Père-Lachaise, the city's cemetery that is the final resting place of scores of artists, writers and other cultural luminaries including Marcel Proust, Oscar Wilde, Gertrude Stein and Edith Piaf.
The 300-pound bust made by Croatian sculptor Mladen Mikulin was added to the grave in 1981 for the 10th anniversary of the singer's death.
“I think it would be incredible if they put the bust back onto where it was and it would attract so many more people, but the cemetery wouldn’t even be able to hold that many people,” Paris tour guide Jade Jezzini told The Associated Press. “The amount of people who would rush in here just to see the bust to take pictures of it, it would be incredible.”
Known for his dark lyrics, wavy locks, leather pants, theatrical stage presence and mystical manner, Morrison has inspired generations of acolytes who congregate at his grave to reflect and sometimes to party, including a major gathering for the 50th anniversary of his death. The site has often been covered with flowers, poetic graffiti and liquor bottles left in tribute.
He was undergoing a cultural renaissance when the bust was stolen in the late 1980s, which peaked with the 1991 Oliver Stone film “The Doors,” in which Val Kilmer, who died in April, played Morrison.
London artist Sam Burcher recently returned to the now more subdued grave site that she first visited 40 years ago when the sculpture of Morrison was still in place.
“The bust was much smaller than all of these grand tombs. It was very modest, so I was quite surprised by that,” she told the AP. “But the other thing was the atmosphere, it was buzzing. There were people partying, smoking, music, dancing, and then I brought strawberries and kind of gave them out to everyone ... it was just such an amazing experience.”
Morrison cofounded the Doors in Los Angeles in 1965 with Ray Manzarek. Robby Krieger and John Densmore joined soon after.
The band and its frontman burned brightly but briefly, releasing albums including “The Doors” “Strange Days," and “Morrison Hotel, whose The California site that gave that album its name and cover image was seriously damaged in a fire last year.
After their final album, 1971’s “L.A. Woman,” Morrison moved to Paris. His cause of death was listed as heart failure, though no autopsy was performed as none was required by law. Disputes and myths have surrounded the death and added to his mystique.