Tributes from the city of Figeac against Jean-François Champollion have been numerous since his death. In particular during the 100th and 150th anniversary of the decipherment of hieroglyphs in 1922 and 1972, but also on March 11, 1832, when a few days after the death of the scientist, the municipal council decided to erect an obelisk in his honor in Place de la Raison. But it remains in the history of the city, like a scar now well forgotten, with the national subscription to create a monument in Figeac in his memory, launched in 1867, and signed by the Emperor Napoleon III himself.
Auguste Bartholdi, who is not yet the renowned sculptor he will become, with creations such as the Lion of Belfort, the Vercingétorix monument in Clermont-Ferrand or the Statue of Liberty in New York, is asking the city for a monument far more ambitious than the obelisk. He has already traveled to Egypt to immerse himself in the subject. A first plaster presented to the municipality is considered too little resemblance. Bartholdi then turns to the Champollion family who sends him portraits of Jean-François for a realization more faithful to his features. This second original plaster, seems to satisfy everyone.
Alas the noises of boots coming from Prussia and the Franco-German war of 1870 destroyed the business. The subscription will never achieve the expected success.
Auguste Bartholdi died on October 4, 1904 in Paris. He is buried in the Montparnasse cemetery. The following year, his widow bequeathed the plaster made by her husband in 1867 to the city of Grenoble. Consigned to the museum’s reserves, it will only be installed in 1926, in the main courtyard of the school which had just taken the name of Champollion two years earlier. It is now on display in a room in the museum.
Nearly a century later, the association of former students of this Champollion high school, ordered a bronze, for a value of €23,000 which will be installed in its main courtyard in 2014.
The marble monument dedicated to Champollion and sculpted by Bartholdi in 1875 is in the courtyard of the Collège de France in Paris.
For its part, Figeac owns the marble bust sculpted by Dominique Molknecht in 1847. Made to adorn the departmental council’s science room, it was sold to Figeac in 1938. It appears in the exhibition in the Heritage area: “Champollion in his city”. A remarkable exhibition open for free every day from July to August from 10 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and from 2 p.m. to 6 p.m. September to November, Tuesday to Sunday, 2 to 6 p.m.
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