AMBOISE, France: Vandals in central France damaged a sculpture of an Algerian military hero who resisted France’s colonisation of the North African country, just hours before it was inaugurated on Saturday, AFP journalists reported.
The lower part of the steel sculpture in the town of Amboise, where Emir Abdelkader was imprisoned from 1848 to 1852, was badly damaged in the attack which comes in the midst of an election campaign.
Amboise mayor Thierry Boutard said he was "ashamed" of those responsible and decided to proceed with the inauguration ceremony regardless.
"I was ashamed that someone would treat an artwork and an artist in this way," he told AFP.
"My second sentiment is of course one of indignation. This is a day of harmony and unity and this kind of behaviour is unspeakable," he said.
Police said they were investigating the incident.
The sculpture was commissioned to coincide with the 60th anniversary of Algeria’s independence from France, won after a brutal eight-year liberation war that continues to poison relations between the two countries.
It was suggested by a historian tasked by President Emmanuel Macron with coming up with ways to heal the memories of the war and 132 years of French rule in Algeria.
The sculpture of Abdelkader, an Islamic-scholar-turned-military-leader who resisted French rule but was feted as a hero in France for his later defence of Christians in the Middle East, looks across the Loire river at the castle where he was imprisoned.