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FRENCH HISTORY

The famous faces stripped of France’s highest honour

The Légion d'honneur is an award given to eminent figures who have brought glory to France. Actor Gérard Depardieu, who faces allegations of sexual assault, risks joining a notorious list of those who have had the title stripped from them.

Published: 17 December 2023 11:13 CET
The Légion d'honneur is France's highest honour.
The Légion d'honneur is France's highest honour. (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP)

The Légion d’honneur is an the highest award given by the French state. 

To receive the award, French citizens must have excelled in their field for at least 20 years to the benefit of the nation; have a clean criminal record and have shown ‘good morality’; and be nominated by minister, prefect, charity, elected official, or a group of 50 people. Military personnel have slightly different criteria for receiving the award. 

Foreigners can also receive the decoration but unlike French citizens do not become members of the l’ordre de la Légion d’honneur [the order of the Légion d’honneur]. 

Military figures who receive the Légion d’honneur receive a small payment every year of up to €36.59. 

How to get stripped of the Légion d’honneur

People who receive a criminal conviction or who have ‘committed dishonourable acts or acts that go against the interests of France’ can be stripped of the Légion d’honneur. 

In the case of a criminal conviction, the removal of the honour is automatic. In the latter case, the process can take months or even years while a disciplinary procedure is launched. 

On Friday, the French Culture Minister announced that such a disciplinary procedure would be launched against actor Gérard Depardieu, who faces allegations of sexual assault. 

A notorious list

If Gérard Depardieu is stripped of the Légion d’honneur, he would join the company of dictators, war criminals, cheats, racists and other problematic figures. Here is a selection of some of the highest profile figures to have the honour removed:

  • Philippe Pétain

Philippe Pétain was awarded the Légion d’honneur in 1917 for his role as a commander during Battle of Verdun in WWI. Initially hailed as a war hero, he went on to collaborate with the Nazis become the head of Vichy France during WWII. He was condemned to death for treason in 1945 and stripped of the Légion d’honneur the very same day. His sentence was eventually commuted to life imprisonment. 

  • Maurice Papon 

Maurice Papon was a French politician and civil servant, found guilty in 1998 of crimes against humanity for his role in helping organise the deportation of Jews during WWII. Although he was later acquitted of a number of charges on the grounds that he was not aware that the Jews would ultimately be murdered, he was automatically stripped of his Légion d’honneur title following his initial condemnation. When he died in 2007 however, he was buried with his Légion d’honneur medal. 

  • Bashar al-Assad 

In 2007, France announced it was initiating a procedure to remove the Légion d’honneur from Bashar al-Assad. The Syrian dictator is responsible for numerous atrocities committed during the Syrian Civil War, including the use of chemical weapons against civilian populations. Up to 610,000 people are estimated to have died in the conflict since 2011. Al-Assad was initially awarded with the Légion d’honneur by President Jacques Chirac in 2001 and before the title could be stripped from him, he voluntarily renounced it. 

  • John Galliano 

British fashion designer and former artistic director of Dior, John Galliano, was stripped of his Légion d’honneur in 2012, after he was fined €6,000 for vile anti-Semitic slurs. 

  • Lance Armstrong

Lance Armstrong was an inspiration to winning the Tour de France seven consecutive times from 1999-2005, having gone into remission from testicular cancer. But just one year after he finally admitted to using performance enhancing drugs in, he was stripped of the Légion d’honneur in 2014. 

Controversial recipients who still bear the title

  • Vladimir Putin

Vladimir Putin, who launched Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has a track record of brutally suppressing opposition at home, still holds his Légion d’honneur title. In February, Emmanuel Macron said he wasn’t against stripping him of of the honour, but has yet to do so.

  • Abdel Fattah el-Sisi
Egypt’s current President was discretely awarded a Légion d’honneur by Emmanuel Macron in 2020. Human rights activists accuse Abdel Fattah el-Sisi of being behind extra-judicial killings, torture and forced disappearances. France is a major weapons supplier to his regime. 
  • Benito Mussolini 

The fascist leader of Italy from 1922-1943 was initially awarded a Légion d’honneur following nomination by a French trade minister. He was never stripped of the honour. Other 20th Century autocrats were also able to hold on to the title. Spanish dictator Francisco Franco and Romanian dictator Nicolae Caeusescu were also never stripped of their Légions d’honneur, with courts ruling that it was impossible to remove the title from a dead person. 

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CULTURE

Why is the Mona Lisa so famous (and why is it even in France)?

Being lauded as either the greatest artwork in the world or the most overrated tourist attraction in France, Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa does not struggle to get attention. But why is this small portrait so famous?

Published: 17 May 2024 17:47 CEST
Why is the Mona Lisa so famous (and why is it even in France)?

Paris’ Louvre museum has recently announced that the Mona Lisa painting is to get its own room, a move that is at least partly in reaction to increasing complaints about the artwork being overrated, while tourists struggle to see it in the small, crowded space.

There aren’t many paintings that get a room of their own, so just what is it about Mona Lisa (or La Joconde as she is known in France) that attracts so many millions of tourists each year – and should you bother going to see her?

Why is it in France?

Let’s start with why the painting is in France in the first place, since both painter and subject are Italian (although Italy at that time was still a collection of city states which would not be unified into the modern country until 1861). 

In short, Mona Lisa is in France because her creator Leonardo da Vinci travelled with her, and he was in France when he died in 1519. The reason that he was in France is that he spent the last years of his life working on special commissions for king François I. He died at the Château du Clos Lucé in Amboise, in France’s Loire Valley. 

Upon his death Mona Lisa was taken into the French royal collection and various descendants of François I hung her in their palaces until the French Revolution happened in 1793.

After the Revolution, with the exception of a brief stint in Napoleon’s palace, the painting entered the collection of the newly-created Louvre gallery which – in the spirit of revolutionary equality – was opened up to the people so that they too could enjoy great art.

Various requests over the years – some polite, others less so – from Italy to return the painting have been firmly declined by the French state. 

When did it get famous?

In the 18th and 19th centuries Leonardo’s painting was a popular exhibit among museum visitors, but didn’t have any particular fame and wasn’t regarded as any more special than the numerous other artworks exhibited there.

Although some academic interest in the painting’s subject – most commonly thought to be Lisa Gherardini, wife of the Florentine merchant Francesco del Giocondo – stirred in the 19th century, her real fame didn’t arrive until 1911.

This is when the painting was stolen from the Louvre, a crime that became a sensation and a cause celèbre in France, even more so when the painting was finally found in 1913 after the thief had attempted to sell it in Italy.

The fame of the painting and the crime inspired contemporary artists such as Marcel Duchamp who created a playful reproduction of Mona Lisa (complete with beard and moustache) which in turn enhanced the painting’s recognition. The artistic trend continued with everyone from Andy Warhol to the ubiquitous student posters of Mona Lisa smoking a joint.

Former chairman of the French Communist Party Robert Hue views moustachioed Mona Lisa by dadaist painter Marcel Duchamp, lent out by his party for the first time for an exhibition in January 2002. Photo by NICOLAS ASFOURI / AFP

A tour of the painting to the US in 1963 and to Japan in 1974 further enhanced the celebrity status.

21st century

These days it’s perhaps accurate to say that the painting is simply famous because it’s famous. As the best-known piece of art in the world it’s automatically on many tourists’ ‘must see’ list when they come to Paris – and a lot of tourists come to Paris (roughly 44 million per year).

Meanwhile the Louvre is the most-visited museum in the world, attracting roughly 9 million visitors a year.

Although some visitors find the painting itself disappointing (it’s very small, just 77cm by 53cm) the most common complaint is that the room is too crowded – many people report that it’s so jammed with visitors that it’s hard to even see the picture never mind spend time contemplating the artwork.

Should I go and see it?

It really depends on what you like – if your taste in art is firmly in the more modern camp then you probably won’t find that this painting particularly speaks to you. You will, however, find a lot in Paris that is much more to your taste, running from the Musée d’Orsay (mostly art created between 1848 and 1914) to the Pompidou Centre (featuring contemporary and experimental art) and much, much more.

If, however, Renaissance art is your bag then you’ll struggle to find a finer example of it than Mona Lisa, with her beautiful brushwork, detailed and intriguing background and realistic presentation.

If you do decide to visit, then be prepared for the gallery to be crowded – the Louvre now operates on a pre-booking basis but even having a pre-booked ticket won’t save you from the crowds.

If possible try to avoid the summer and school holidays and prioritise weekdays over weekends – the early morning or late evening slots tend to be a little quieter than others, but you’re going to have to be prepared to share her with many other art-lovers.

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