PILLAGING OF CHURCHES.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXI, Issue 18678, 7 April 1924, Page 7

PILLAGING OF CHURCHES.

MANY THEFTS IN FRANCE. COUNTERFEIT SUBSTITUTES A campaign against the pillaging of the old churches of Prance for the benefit of antiquaries and their clients is now being carried on quietly but effectively. Recent revelations concerning the substitution of a modern copy of a fifteenth-century ecclesiastical statue for the original led to the discovery that this kind of thing had been going on in all parts of France. Ancient statues, priceless stained glass, carvings, and pictures were being carefully sought out in country churches, and where terapting offers failed to induce priests to make a bargain unscrupulous treasure-hunters ■ either stole the antiquities "outright or contrived to replace them by counterfeits. One case in which a collector resorted to theft has just been concluded at Joigny, where Pierre David, an antiquary, has been sentenced to 15 months' imprisonment for a series of burglaries committed in neighbouring churches. Among the things stolen were a stained-glass window, statuettes in wood, a picture, and a thirteenth-century statue of the Virgin. David had long been suspected as the author of the thefts, but no clues were found until one of his ex-employees told of having had to clean a statue resembling one of those stolen. A comparison of David's finger-prints with some he had left on a fragment of stained glass in a raided church 1 have now sufficed to convict him, in spite of his denials, but the whereabouts of the missing art treasures is still unknown.