Year 2019, annus horribilis for churches!
According to the Ministry of Culture, the number of thefts there exploded there last year, from three to thirty-six (each of them generally involving several objects).
The figures may seem modest if we refer to the number of churches (45,000) and cathedrals (87) concerned, but they only relate to classified and protected objects, that is to say the most beautiful pieces in the collections.
In addition, there are ordinary thefts of chalices or candlesticks, criminals often confusing brass and precious metal.
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Sides classified objects, the examples are not lacking:
Saint Pierre
of the XVIIth century in polychrome wood stolen from the parish church of Saint-Pierre de Coublanc (Haute-Marne), veils, chasubles and liturgical ornaments disappeared in the cathedral of Sainte-Marie d ' Oloron (Pyrénées-Atlantiques) or nineteenth-century silversmith soaring to Saint-Pierre cathedral in Rennes (Ille-et-Vilaine) ... If the churches remain
"the largest museum in France"
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