The headless statues on the left stand in the Musee National du Moyen Age in Paris. They may be the bodies of sculptures ripped down from Notre-Dame Cathedral during the French Revolution. Mobs mistook the figures for French kings - when in fact, they were kings of Judea (Whoops!) - tied ropes around their stone necks and guillotined them. “In 1793 … the cathedral was rededicated to the Cult of Reason. Later … rededicated to the Cult of the Supreme Being,” wrote one art historian.
I took the shot on the right in 1982, somewhere in China, and my guess is that the statues were beheaded during the frenzy of the Cultural Revolution.
Plus ça change / 它改变的越多
—Commenter Janet Van Fleet was reminded of this artist (photo is not mine, but a screen shot: https://www.abakanowicz.art.pl/
What a shame. Good thing you were there to catch the snap!
The French were pretty unhappy with the church and deliberately disfigured church statuary.