Oscar Wilde's refurbished tomb ends lip disservice

Actor Rupert Everett and Oscar Wilde's grandson Merlin Holland were among those at a ceremony in Paris today unveiling the Irish dramatist's restored tomb, which had become blighted by lipstick smears left by thousands of kisses.

The ceremony at the Père Lachaise cemetery marked a restoration that returns the memorial to the look its sculptor, Sir Jacob Epstein, would have recognised in 1912. There is now also a protective barrier to deter loving vandals for whom kissing Oscar's tomb had become a cult pastime.

The monument to Wilde, who died in Paris aged 46 in abject poverty, features a flying naked angel inspired by the British Museum's Assyrian figures. Although the angel was vandalised in the early 1960s, the tomb was relatively unscathed until 1985, when the graffiti started, with lipstick grease eventually beginning to erode the stone.   More Read