Neuchâtel: David de Pury stolen statuette

After the tags discovered on the walls of the collegiate church and elsewhere in town last weekend, Neuchâtel faces a new act of vandalism. The small sculpture representing David de Pury placed near the main statue of the controversial merchant was stolen, reported «ArcInfo» This Tuesday.

The city of Neuchâtel, through the voice of its communications officer Sophie Schneider, announced in the Neuchâtel daily his intention to file a complaint, “as for any act of vandalism towards her heritage, in this case cultural”.

It particularly deplores this degradation, because the aimed work is part of a memory approach on the colonial past of the city, as well as in an effort of social cohesion and reconciliation. “The built heritage, the public space and the artistic works there are common goods that it is always unhappy to see being vandalized,” she underlines with our colleagues.

Statue of David de Pury sprayed with paint

This statuette had been installed after the bronze statue of David de Pury had been sprayed with red paint, in July 2020. This gesture was part of the Black Lives Matter movement and had relaunched the debates on the historical figures linked to slavery.

Signed by the Geneva artist Mathias Pfund, the work was inaugurated in 2022. It represents David de Pury upside down, the head inserted in a concrete base, echoing the fall of the statue of Louis Agassiz during an earthquake at the start of the XX^e century at the University of California.

At the microphone of L‘Forum program», Wednesday evening, the city president, Nicole Baur, expressed her dismay. “It is difficult to grasp the meaning of such an act. This work was precisely a critical response to the controversies linked to David de Pury and his involvement in slavery, “she told our colleagues from RTS.

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