Liberation Statue

This beautiful bronze statue depicts a nude woman brandishing a sword towards the sky, her face turned towards the light. You only have to look at it to grasp the explosion of mixed feelings our ancestors must have experienced upon the declaration of armistice in 1918. Relief, joy, pride, sadness, pain, ruin. This work by French sculptor Emile Guillaume, originally named Victory, was chosen in 1919 to be reproduced in 11 copies and donated to 11 towns that had experienced German occupation in France and Belgium. Aristide Briand, former Minister of Foreign Affairs and Nobel Peace Prize winner, also owned a smaller copy, now on display at the Nantes History Museum. As Nantes received its copy, two opposing forces emerged. A fierce campaign was waged against the statue, deemed indecent. Four months after its inauguration, a commando led by the Patriotic Youth brought it down. It wasn’t until 1934 that it was returned to its rightful place on a 6-metre-high pedestal, 100 metres further from its original location. However, tribulations of the Liberation statue did not end there. It almost disappeared forever during the second German occupation. Indeed, during World War II, bronze statues were requisitioned to be melted down in order to make new weapons. The Liberation statue was indeed taken away from Nantes, but was luckily found almost intact in a Parisian workshop in 1950. All it was missing were its arms and sword, which were quickly added by a foundry. It was then set up on the outskirts of town, far from the war memorial to which it was previously attached. Finally, in 2018, the city of Nantes reinstated its Deliverance emblem at the core of its symbolism, in celebration of the armistice centenary. As you gaze upon it today, you finally know the full story.