Giant clitoris sculpture stolen from French university campus... again

The stainless steel structure by Matthew Ellis (pictured below) was unveiled in November 2017 and was first stolen about a year ago.

It was found three weeks later in bushes on the campus in western France. The thieves had sawn through the metal pole upon which the clitoris had stood and took only the upper part of the sculpture.

In the latest theft earlier this month they took the whole lot - the pole, the upper part and even the explanatory plaque.

(AFP)

“The university has filed a complaint with police. There is no trace of the artwork,” Marion Babin, of the local feminist group friends of Women and Liberation (LAFl)  which originally commissioned the sculpture, told Charente Libre newspaper.

The clitoris sculpture was installed by the group with the joint aims of illustrating the fight for gender equality on the campus and raising awareness about violence against women.

A spokeswoman for the group said at the time of the unveiling in 2017 that it was strange that the university “could have a giant penis on campus for so long, while the clitoris has only appeared in science textbooks this year.”

The erect penis statue, more than a metre tall, has been on the campus grounds for decades and is occasionally damaged by feminists who denounce it as the symbol of repressive patriarchy.

Officials at Poitiers University contacted by The Local were unable to confirm on Monday that the clitoris statue was still missing.