Oscar Wilde

Oscar Wilde

Several years ago on a trip to Paris my partner and I met a man in the Pere Lachaise Cemetery who claimed to be a prince.  He said that he visits the cemetery many times a week and he must as he is very knowledgeable about the cemetery occupants.  This man took us to Oscar Wilde's tomb which had been vandalized.  The tomb, designed by Sir Jacob Epstein, is a modernist angel complete with all male parts.  As the story goes, the cemetery superintendent walked past the tomb one morning and discovered that vandals had struck during the night and the angel's parts were lying on the ground.  Those parts are now used as a paper weight on the superintendent's desk.  According to Wikipedia an artist has restored the tomb's missing appendages in silver.  It seems that even in death Oscar Wilde was tormented.