Jim Morrison’s statue found 37 years after it was stolen from his Paris grave

A decades-long cold case has been put to rest thanks to the French police.

In an Instagram post shared on Friday, May 16, the Paris Regional Judicial Police Directorate revealed that a sculpture of the late American singer Jim Morrison has been found after being stolen from his Paris grave 37 years ago.

“After 37 years of absence, the bust of Jim Morrison, stolen in 1988 from the Père Lachaise cemetery, has been found,” the post reads. “During an investigation conducted by the Financial and Anti-Corruption Brigade of the Directorate of Judicial Police of the Prefecture of Police, under the authority of the Paris Public Prosecutor’s Office, this iconic symbol for the singer’s fans was recovered.”

No suspects have been named in the theft of the statue of the singer.

Morrison was buried at Père Lachaise cemetery in Paris after dying in the city at the age of 27 in 1971. His death has been questioned by fans, peers, and friends alike, although French authorities officially ruled that Morrison died from a heart attack. It’s possible that the mysterious circumstances surrounding his death fueled the mania with his gravesite bust.

The sculpture, made by Croatian artist Mladen Mikulin, was placed at Morrison’s grave in 1981, in honor of the 10th anniversary of the Doors frontman’s death.

The gravesite also houses the tombs of Edith Piaf and Oscar Wilde and has long been a site for fans of the rocker to pay their respects in the area known as Poet’s Corner.

Paris’ official tourism website states that crowds gather there on the anniversary of Morrison’s death on July 3 every year.

According to Time, “On any given day, hordes of tourists surround his tombstone, which has been covered with graffiti by overenthusiastic fans and once featured a bust of Morrison before vandals claimed it as their own. Nearby tombstones have been defaced as well — with arrows pointing visitors toward ‘Jim’ — though cemetery staff have wiped them clean and erected metal barricades to curb unauthorized tributes.”

The devout attention led to a riot breaking out at his grave in 1991, on the 20th anniversary of his death, which prompted Père Lachaise to hire additional security for the grounds, the BBC previously reported.

Following Morrison’s death, the remaining members of the Doors — drummer John Densmore, guitarist Robby Krieger, and keyboardist Ray Manzarek — released two oft-forgotten albums, Other Voices and Full Circle. After Full Circle’s tour, the group disbanded, though they have reunited for one-off projects over the years.

Manzarek died in 2013 at the age of 74 from bile duct cancer. Krieger and Densmore, the two surviving members of the group, have seemingly laid to rest their decades-long battle over the band’s name, as they reunited at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art’s “An Evening With the Doors” in late 2013.