Bardot’s Bust No Longer On Display In French City

Four busts symbolizing the French republic have lost their place in City Hall because they were modeled on actress Brigitte Bardot, who has ties to the far-right National Front.

“Brigitte Bardot once incarnated the liberated woman - carefree, young and beautiful,” Jean-Jacques Urvoas, director of Quimper’s mayoral office, said Wednesday. “Today, she has come to symbolize rejection, exclusion.”

The model for Marianne changes every 10 years. The four busts in Bardot’s image were replaced by others inspired by actress Catherine Deneuve. Singer Mireille Mathieu also has been the Marianne model.

The busts of Bardot, in place for nearly 25 years, are now stored in an empty office, nose to the wall, Urvoas said.

Bardot’s fall from grace in Quimper, a Socialist stronghold in western France, came after the 62-year-old former screen star and animal-rights campaigner expressed her support for Toulon’s National Front mayor, Jean-Marie Chevallier. Bardot is married to a close adviser to party leader Jean-Marie Le Pen.

Chevallier has been criticized for refusing to honor a Jewish writer at Toulon’s annual book fair. He substituted a book by Bardot for the work of Polish-born Marek Halter.