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Hidden gem: French farmer sued after digging for sapphires in Auvergne soil

A couple from France's Auvergne region took a neighbour to court on Tuesday for digging for sapphires in a local stream, demanding at least €1 million in compensation.

Published: 21 November 2023 15:21 CET

Hidden gem: French farmer sued after digging for sapphires in Auvergne soil

An amateur gemologist points to a sapphire in a river in 2017 in Issoire, France. (Photo by Thierry Zoccolan / AFP)

The plaintiffs accuse the local farmer of mining the precious stones on their land.

Subsoil in the volcanic region of central France is saturated with gems.

The farmer, who owns property on the opposite bank to the plaintiffs, has been mining for stones near the town of Issoire with a partner.

But his neighbours accuse him of also digging for the precious stones on their side of the river.

READ MORE: Ten reasons to visit France’s Auvergne area

Their lawyer Patrick Roesch said they want at least €1 million in compensation.

“The case began about a year ago when my clients began to wonder about the frequent use of a path running alongside their property,” Roesch said ahead of the hearing on Tuesday.

After watching a television report on sapphire mining in Auvergne, the couple recognised the stream at the bottom of their property and realised that the prospectors had regularly worked the deposits.

“Some of them even boasted of having found the most beautiful and largest precious stones — sapphires in this case — on the part of the riverbed belonging to my clients,” Roesch said.

The river does not belong to the state, so if two banks belong to different owners, then under French law each of them owns half of the riverbed.

A lawyer for the prospectors declined to comment when contacted by AFP.

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Street art stars invited to 'invade' Paris fine art museum

The famous Petit-Palais museum on the banks of the Seine houses an illustrious selection of 19th-century painting and sculpture.

But the We Are Here exhibition sees the street artists infiltrate it with graffiti, murals and graphics dotted among the portraits – even adding cartoon wings to statues.

Some merge almost too well – a freshly made portrait by Tunisian artist DaBro looks perfectly at home in a cluster of solemn 19th-century street scenes until you realise it features break-dancers.

Others are more obvious, such as the pixelated alien by the French artist Invader sitting above a Monet sunset.

It is, say some of the artists, a logical step.

Paris has embraced street art with a 2023 exhibition of street artworks at City Hall being extended due to popular demand while the walls of one of the tunnels along the banks of the Seine has been given over to street artists as a permanent but ever-changing canvas.

“Street art always has the spirit of invasion. We always want to take over spaces that are not open to us,” said Inti, a Chilean artist who provided a huge mural.

But the exhibition has also made him question himself, he told AFP: “To enter into a closed space like this is to enter into an institution – it’s a bit counter to what we try to do outside.”

He was concerned, too, that street art has become too commercialised, undermining its rebellious spirit.

A painting by US artist Jean-Michel Basquiat, who started out in street art before moving into galleries, sold for $110 million in 2017; a shredded artwork by Britain’s guerilla street artist Banksy went for $25 million in 2021.

Hush, a street artist from the north of England, agrees that art movements die when they become too accepted by the establishment.

But its ethos still challenges the elitist atmosphere of galleries, he said.

“As a working-class guy, you don’t always feel accepted in art museums. With street art, everyone feels allowed to come in,” he told AFP.

“And you can still be disruptive, you can still have fun. The good thing with being from this scene is you don’t feel like you have to say yes. It means we’re still in control.”

One of the first items to strike visitors is a giant aerosol can emerging out of the ground with cartoon wings, courtesy of London-based artist D*Face.

“It represents the fact that we’ve been buried underground and often overlooked and now we’re coming up to be seen,” he said.

The timing is right, he added, with France plunged into political turmoil this week by a far-right landslide in European elections.

“Urban art is really the first global art movement. You go anywhere in the world and there is a street art community,” said D*Face.

“It’s all about inclusivity, whereas politics right now is trying to divide us.”

Also present is Shepard Fairey, aka Obey, renowned for his “Hope” posters for Barack Obama’s presidential campaign.

His “Liberty, Equality, Brotherhood” shows French figurehead Marianne with a blood-red tear running down her cheek, made in response to terrorist attacks in Paris in 2015.

“The thing I love about street art is that it brings people together, it’s got a generous spirit,” he said. “Anything that makes people think about their common humanity rather than selfish protectionism is very valuable for this moment.”

But can street art maintain that political relevance if it becomes too accepted by the elite?

“We’ve been saying street art is dead since its inception and it has kept evolving,” said Hush.

“But it has come full circle. Street art was against the people who could say yes or no.

“And now they say yes to us.”

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