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Oscar Wilde’s tomb falls victim to his admirers
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At Père Lachaise cemetery, admirers have covered the sculpted sphinx which adorns Oscar Wilde’s tomb of with traces of lipstick. This historic monument has now been restored.
In 1900, Oscar Wilde died at the age of 46, struck down by meningitis. The author of “The Picture of Dorian Grey” wrote mainly essays, plays and poetry. Mrs Helen Carew, a friend of Robert Ross, his universal legatee, made an anonymous donation of 2,000 pounds for the controversial young sculptor Jacob Epstein to create a piece of work to decorate Wilde’s tomb. The project was completed in 1914. The burial place was then classified as a historic monument.
Lipstick damages the monument
 The work has suffered all kinds of damage and graffiti. Since 1999, graffiti has been replaced by a different, much more serious kind of damage: lipstick left by tourists kissing the monument.
It is the Irish who came to the monument’s rescue by funding a radical restoration. A glass barrier was installed to prevent the lipstick left by fans’ kisses from causing further damage.
Practical information
Père-Lachaise Cemetery
8, Boulevard de Ménilmontant
75020 Paris – Metro: Philippe Auguste
Further information
A virtual visit to Père Lachaise Cemetery
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