In the Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris there is a grave that attracts thousands of women for a paradoxical reason.

Victor Noir was a journalist who was shot and killed. Posthumously he became famous for his tomb rather than his work

The life-size statue of the late Noir – in the pose of a man who has just been shot dead – is believed to bring success in love, a good sex life and fertility. That is why the lips and the genital area on the pants of the bronze sculpture now shine from the “rubbing” of thousands of (mostly female) hands.

In 2004, a fence was built around the tomb to prevent women from touching the statue, but after many protests it was demolished.

Who was Noir?

Victor Noir was a French journalist who died in the late 19th century.

Noir lived in Paris and wrote political texts, passionately defending his democratic values. In 1870, Prince Pierre Bonaparte challenged him to a gunfight and in the end, killed him.

At his funeral in his hometown of Neuilly, he was honored as a fighter for democracy, with nearly 100,000 people paying their respects and visiting his grave.

At the end of the 19th century – after the establishment of the French Third Republic – his body was honorably transferred to the Perre Lachaise cemetery in Paris, and the sculptor Jules Dalou created a statue in his memory – with a generous decoration by the artist on the disputed points.

No real connection, that is, the reputation acquired by the epitaph – admittedly gifted – statue with sex.