The bust of Dalida changes color, the Paris city hall contradicts itself

The bronze bust of the singer Dalida, installed since 1997 in Place Dalida in Montmartre, has undergone a discreet restoration of its patina, the origin of which was initially denied before finally being acknowledged by the City of Paris, causing a minor controversy around the transparency of the operation.

A chest made radiant by decades of caresses

The restoration focused primarily on the statue's chest, which had become particularly shiny over the years due to a well-known tourist tradition of stroking it for good luck. According to Le Parisien, visitors to Montmartre were able to see as early as last weekend that the bronze, previously grayish and patinated, had regained a darker, more uniform hue.

When questioned about the origin of this operation, the Paris City Hall and the 18th arrondissement City Hall initially claimed not to be aware of the intervention, before retracting their statement the following day and confirming that it was indeed a patina restoration carried out by a professional, in accordance with the conservation operations regularly conducted on street furniture.

A family that says it was not informed

The City claims to have informed the singer's family of this intervention, which is denied by Orlando, Dalida's brother, who claims he was not kept informed of the operation even though he himself was considering a restoration of the monument on the occasion of the 40th anniversary of the artist's disappearance, planned for 2027.

Installed in 1997 to mark ten years since Dalida's death, the bust sculpted by the artist Aslan remains one of the most photographed monuments on the Montmartre hill, regularly besieged by tourists who come to pay their respects to this emblematic figure of French song.