Jim Morrison's lost graveside bust has been found by French police

Jim Morrison’s lost graveside bust has been found in a search by French police.

After disappearing in 1988, the statue was uncovered in a search related to a fraud case, in what was called a “chance discovery.”

“During an investigation conducted by the Financial and Anti-Corruption Brigade of the Directorate of Judicial Police of the Prefecture of Police, under the authority of the Paris Public Prosecutor's Office, this iconic symbol for the singer's fans was recovered,” they announced on Instagram.

 

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The bust was laden with graffiti and missing a slice of its nose stolen by souvenir hunters. It was originally carved after Morrison’s death by Croatian artist Mladen Mikulin, and placed at his grave at Paris’s Père-Lachaise cemetery in 1981.

The singer's exact cause of death remains a mystery, though some accounts say he died of cardiac arrest in his bathtub. He died at the age of 27.

The statue disappeared seven years after it was placed at the gravesite. Rumors spread, suggesting it may have been stolen by fans or hidden by authorities for protection. In 1944, two Americans were arrested for attempting to erect their own bronze statue as a replacement.

It’s currently unclear whether or not the original statue will be erected back onto the grave.

“The police haven’t contacted us, so I don’t know whether the bust will be returned to us,” the curator of the Père-Lachaise cemetery, Benoît Gallot, told Le Figaro.