The mayor of Carnac (Morbihan), vilified on social networks after the destruction of menhirs whose value is debated in a commercial area, announced Sunday that the Saint-Cornély church, classified as historical monuments, had been tagged.
“I imagine that the relentless heritage protectors who call for my death and burn down my house, attack my family, are the same ones who, this night, tagged and desecrated a 16th century jewel, our church of Saint- Cornély”, denounced on his Facebook page Olivier Lepick. “I believe it was Albert Einstein who said that the only two things that were infinite were the universe and human stupidity. I am deeply sad,” added Mr. Lepick, who also posted hate messages on his account.
According to the images broadcast, a tag “To shave everything like the menhirs” appears on the porch of the church.
Olivier Lepick told AFP on Friday that his home had been placed under the protection of the gendarmerie following threats and insults. An amateur archaeologist from Carnac said in a blog post in early June that around forty small menhirs had been destroyed in a construction site for a DIY store.
Reacting to the emotion aroused by this destruction, the Regional Directorate of Cultural Affairs (Drac) of Brittany underlined the “still uncertain and in any case not major character of the remains” found during the preventive excavations of 2015. The mayor had attested for his part, he “perfectly complied with the legislation” and also invoked “the low archaeological value” of the objects found.
On May 13, it was in this same church located in the tourist town on the Breton coast that several dozen demonstrators close to the fundamentalist Catholic organization Civitas had prevented the holding of a concert by an American organist. Two people will be tried in March 2024 for infringement of freedom of expression and willful violence.
