
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, March 22, 1992                   TAG: 9203220060
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL                    PAGE: A-6   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: MONTAUBAN, FRANCE                                LENGTH: Medium

GRAFFITI FOES ERASE VALUED ANCIENT ART

The idea was to clean up graffiti, but a French youth group got carried away and wiped out a bit of prehistory as well, damaging cave paintings thousands of years old.

French cultural officials are furious, and say they plan to file a complaint against the group.

"Absolutely stupid!" fumed Rene Gachet, director of cultural affairs for the Tarn-et-Garonne department, 400 miles southwest of Paris.

The damage was done last Sunday when about 70 members of Eclaireurs de France - a Protestant youth group whose name means "Those Who Show the Way" - descended on the Mayrieres cave near Brunquiel, armed with steel brushes to clean up graffiti.

Group officials acknowledged Saturday that the youths damaged a portion of the Mayrieres cave's 15,000-year-old bison paintings before realizing what they were. In a statement, they expressed regret but were also "indignant that the actions of well-meaning youths should be called into question."

The head of the caving club that arranged the cleanup blamed officials for failing to designate the site a historic treasure and act to protect it.

"We told them that the cave was in danger, that people were writing on the walls," Thierry Montheillet, whose spelunkers group discovered the paintings 40 years ago, told France-Info radio. "They did absolutely nothing."

Gachet said the Culture Ministry will file a civil complaint against the spelunkers club and the youth group that could result in a fine.

by CNB