Éric Ciotti announces the restoration of the Jacques Chirac statue before replacing it next year

The statue of Jacques Chirac, installed since February 2020 on the avenue bearing his name in Nice, will undergo emergency restoration. Éric Ciotti has also announced the launch of a new bronze sculpture project, with installation planned within a year.

A cracked skull, missing fingers and deteriorated sculpture pieces. Six years after its inauguration, the statue of Jacques Chirac is no longer in satisfactory condition. Installed on the Jacques-Chirac avenue, near the Cours Saleya, the 2.20-meter work made of resin and fiberglass has suffered the effects of time, weather and several acts of vandalism.

Faced with this situation, the mayor of Nice, Éric Ciotti, announced a two-stage intervention. The municipality will first undertake restoration of the current sculpture, before proceeding with its replacement by a bronze work intended to make this tribute to the former President of the Republic permanent.

This announcement comes as the condition of the statue had already prompted reactions. On March 9, 2026, when he was still a candidate in the municipal elections, Éric Ciotti notably denounced its state on Facebook: “The statue of Jacques Chirac vandalized, neglected in Nice. At 16, he had given me the desire to commit to the RPR. Tomorrow, we will honor his memory by restoring the statue!”

A resin statue replaced by a bronze work

Inaugurated on February 8, 2020, the sculpture had been created in particularly short timeframes. Commissioned on January 6 of the same year, the work was to be delivered by January 28. Designed with the participation of carnival organizers, the statue was made of resin and fiberglass, before receiving a patina intended to imitate bronze.

This technical choice was initially intended as a temporary solution, pending a genuine bronze sculpture. The replacement was ultimately never carried out. Since then, climatic conditions, particularly sea air, have gradually altered the materials. Several repairs failed to preserve the work durably.

However, the damage does not date from yesterday. As early as February 2020, just days after its inauguration, the statue was vandalized. Further acts were also noted in 2021, with inscriptions and motifs created in red paint on the sculpture. The inscriptions were removed and a complaint was filed.

Éric Ciotti now intends to turn the page on this temporary installation. The mayor confirmed having “decided to immediately undertake restoration of the current work, while launching the creation of a new bronze sculpture, with installation planned within a year […] It is regrettable that a tribute to a former President of the Republic was created in such short timeframes, with materials that did not allow its permanence to be guaranteed. The current state of this statue is not worthy of Jacques Chirac’s memory. We have the responsibility to preserve this tribute and give it the dignity it deserves.”

The new bronze sculpture should thus take its place on the Jacques-Chirac avenue within a year, ending an installation that was originally meant to be temporary.