Did the French media fail to report on theft from the grave of Jean Marais?

The Facebook page of the website La Gauche m’a Tuer (a French far-right opinion website), posted this Tuesday 11^th of April an article in which it claims that the mainstream media failed to report on a theft from the grave of the actor Jean Marais. The grave was indeed desecrated – but this happened in January 2016 and was then widely reported in local and national press across France.

“By teaching people to hate our own country, its culture, its roots, its religion, we’ve pushed numerous people to desecrate, pillage and steal from the tombs of our dead”, insists the site. One of the two sculptures representing the mask that Jean Marais wore in the movie “The Beauty and the Beast” was in fact stolen from the Vallauris Golfe-Juan cemetery in the South of France in January 2016. These sculptures are reproductions.

“Our media barely wrote about this event. There were a few lines in Le Parisien (a national French newspaper), as well as in Nice Matin (a local French Newspaper), that is all. People understand that it’s Jean Marais and not Jamel Debouzze (French-Morrocan comedian), and since it’s only a ‘public’ cemetery as they say…it’s not so important” added La Gauche m’a Tuer.

In reality, news of the theft was widely reported by the French media in 2016. AFP (the French Press Agency) published a story, as did Le Figaro, Paris Match, La Croix, LCI, Gala and the Obs, all widely read news outlets. An arm of France’s national broadcaster, France 3, also produced a documentary on the theft.