Uncovering France's Easter Island statues

There are at least five 'Easter Island' statues in France, according to a counting by The Connexion.

The statues, known as Moai, are renowned monolithic human figures carved by the Rapa Nui people on Easter Island, a remote island in the Pacific 2,200 miles away from Chile. 600 of them are identified on the island.

The stories behind the five located in France range from standard to quirky.

Three of them are exhibited in the Louvre and the Musée du quai Branly - Jacques Chirac, which features 3,500 indigenous art objects from Africa, Asia, Oceania, and the Americas. The most monumental, a two-metre-high carved head, is located at the Louvre’s Pavillon des Sessions, which displays several of Quai Branly’s objects as part of a partnership.

“This head represents two-fifths of a sculpture that was supposed to be five metres high. The top of the skull is flat: like other moai, the statue was supposed to wear a large flat circular headdress made of red volcanic rock,” reads the caption on the Louvre website.

The other two are in the Oceania section of the Quai Branly. One was restored in 2004 and is believed to have been carved between the 11th and 15th centuries.

“The head is one of the most important testimonies to the ancient civilisation of Easter Island. Showcased in a grand glass-sealed vitrine at the Café-jardin, it is the first oeuvre seen by visitors walking by the garden,” said Philippe Peltier, the museum’s curator and who participated in the restoration.

The fourth is located in Tarascon-sur-Ariège (Ariège). It is exhibited in the public park near the centre-town church and the cinema Espace François Mitterrand.

It was carved and gifted by the Rapanui people as part of a Latin-American festival organised by the town in 1998.

The entry doorway of Tarascon-sur-Ariege’s mairie also has a miniature-sized rendition of an Easter island statue.

The Connexion was unavailable to contact the owner of the fifth statue.

However its existence was confirmed during an interview with the owner of Urban Moto, a motor shop next to its location on boulevard Schloesing in the tenth district of Marseille (Bouches-du-Rhône).

The statue sits at the front door of its owner, surrounded by motorcycles and scooters, as seen on Google Maps, using Street view images. It appears to be at least three metres high, the top of the head reaching the window of the first floor of the building.

This one is thought not to originate from the Easter Islands but crafted by a sculptor in Ardèche, commissioned by the owner.