Two new bells classified as historical monuments were stolen from chapels in the Var, a month after those stolen from Ginasservis, AFP learned Monday from the prosecutor's office in Draguignan.
A value of 500 euros
The small town of Brue-Auriac realized early August that at the top of its Romanesque chapel, the 85-kilo bronze bell dating from 1847 had disappeared. "The chapel Notre-Dame is isolated from the center of the village which probably explains why it was targeted," reacted Mayor André Rousselet.
"There has been no damage, the bell has probably already been melted," lamented the city council that according to his calculations estimates the sum of the molten metal to some 500 euros. Engraved and bearing the medallion of the founder, André Rousselet believes that it would be difficult for a collector to resell.
Isolated acts or same authors
About twenty kilometers away, the village of 345 inhabitants of Esparron-de-Pallières also discovered that the bell of its eccentric chapel in the center of the village had also been stolen. "Twenty years ago, the two front doors and a statue of the Virgin had already been stolen and we never found them," lamented Thierry Basso, secretary of the town hall.
"We take this very seriously, either these bells are for resale or they are melted to recover the bronze," said Draguignan deputy prosecutor Pierre Arpaia. "We have brought the cases together to know whether they are isolated acts or the same authors.For the moment there is no priority hypothesis," continued the magistrate.
In mid-July in the same department, in Ginasservis, bells of 80 and 53 kilos were stolen from two chapels. The second bell dating from 1737 was also classified as an historic monument.