The man in black is smiling.
“At the start of Holy Week, we couldn't ask for better.
"In the courtyard of the gendarmerie, Guillaume de Lisle, the vicar general of the diocese of Meaux, was full of praise, this Wednesday afternoon, on the work of the investigators of the research brigade of Meaux, which made it possible to find 80 various objects stolen from churches all over France.
This Wednesday, the diocese thus recovered 39 crucifixes, relics and other monstrances, whose owners could not be identified.
"We will store them and wait to see if they appear and they will then be distributed in our churches", he confides.
"This is an emblematic and exemplary case, although this type of case has been on the decline for ten years," said Colonel Berger, head of the central office for the fight against trafficking in cultural property (OCLTBC) , co-responsible for this investigation which really began in Cocherel, a village north of La Ferté-sous-Jouarre.
In November 2020, cultural goods are stolen from the church of Cocherel.
Our investigation has uncovered many objects stolen from other churches in France.
To find their owners, we need you!
☎️An info? ➡️0164349630.
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- Gendarmerie of Seine-et-Marne (@ Gendarmerie_077) March 10, 2021
On Sunday, November 8, 2020, a witness noticed that the door of the religious building, located a little away and closed to the public for more than twenty years, was broken.
The author (s) left with two reliquaries, a statue of Joan of Arc and another of Saint-Joseph.
The statue of Joan of Arc spotted on Leboncoin
“That same evening, I went to Leboncoin and spotted the statue of Joan of Arc,” says Luc Emlinger, Cocherel municipal councilor.
I contacted the seller in order to block the transaction and I informed the gendarmes.
Three days later, a 58-year-old man was arrested at his home in Montrouge (Hauts-de-Seine).
He admits to being the author of the theft and other facts.
The arrest is followed by that of a buyer, which enables the items stolen from Cocherel to be found.
This Wednesday afternoon, he too was present at the Meaux gendarmerie to officially recover the two statues and the two reliquaries.
"Fortunately, before the theft, we had made an inventory of the objects, which allowed us to see immediately what had been stolen", specifies the elected official.
Meaux, this Wednesday afternoon.
The statues of Joan of Arc and Saint-Joseph (in the foreground) were officially handed over to the elected officials of Cocherel.
LP / TS
From Cocherel, large-scale investigations therefore began, leading the military to the four corners of Ile-de-France, or even further.
In all, 26 churches have reportedly been targeted by the alleged thief since last June.
In Seine-et-Marne, in addition to Cocherel, there was that of Rozay-en-Brie and the Saint-Mathurin basilica in Larchant which was notably stripped of its Stations of the Cross, estimated between 20,000 and 25,000 euros.
He was unfortunately not found.
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In the Paris region, the other buildings concerned are located in the 12th and 13th arrondissements of Paris, in Antony, Meudon and Bagneux in the Hauts-de-Seine, in Saint-Maurice in the Val-de-Marne or in the area of Lardy in Essonne.
"I am happy to see this case resolved and to attend the return of these objects to their legitimate owners", underlines Laureline Peyrefitte, the public prosecutor of Meaux, who praised the work of cooperation between the various services.
The thief and the suspected receivers tried on June 1
Among the 80 stolen objects, the total value of which is estimated at 60,000 euros, 37 have already been returned, not to mention the four heritage treasures of Cocherel.
The 39 others were therefore entrusted to the diocese.
In mid-March, the gendarmes had launched a call for witnesses to try to find the owners but it was in vain.
"We must still continue to look at the social networks of the gendarmes," indicates the vicar.
We never know.
"
The alleged thief was presented to the Meaux prosecutor's office.
He was placed under judicial supervision pending his trial on June 1.
He will not be alone that day on the benches of the criminal court.
Three men, suspected of being the receivers, will also be tried.
Among them, two second-hand dealers from the inner suburbs and an octogenarian collector living in the Fontainebleau region.