Parisians are being offered the chance to win a burial spot among some of history’s most famous artists, including the Doors’ Jim Morrison, author Oscar Wilde, and legendary French singer Edith Piaf.
The city of Paris has launched a lottery to restore funerary monuments within the overcrowded cemeteries of Père-Lachaise, Montparnasse, and Montmartre.
Ten gravestones in need of repair at each cemetery are being offered for €4,000 (£3,500) each, on the condition that purchasers restore them and acquire a burial plot beside them.
The scheme “presents a compromise” between respecting the dead and giving residents a chance to be buried within the city, the Paris council said.
There are very few burial plots currently available at cemeteries within the city limits, with cemeteries mostly full since the start of the 20th Century, the council added.
Maintenance of gravestones and monuments in Parisian cemeteries is the responsibility of families – not the city.
Therefore, some graves can become abandoned and decrepit over time. But removing derelict monuments can prove difficult because the cemeteries are classified as protected heritage sites.
The city hopes this new programme, which was unanimously approved by the council in April, will help to restore monuments within the famous burial grounds.
The cemeteries have also become popular tourist destinations, in part due to those who rest there.
As well as Morrison, Piaf, and Wilde, French novelist Marcel Proust and Polish composer Frederic Chopin are buried at Père Lachaise.
Writers Jean-Paul Sartre, Simone de Beauvoir, Samuel Beckett, and singer Serge Gainsbourg were laid to rest at Montparnasse, while actress Jane Birkin’s ashes were interned there.
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Painter Edgar Degas, writer Emile Zola, and French New Wave director Francois Truffaut are buried at Montmartre.
There is no suggestion that any of these monuments is up for grabs under the scheme.
The 30 available gravestones, many now without distinguishable inscriptions, date back to the 19th Century.
Applications are only open to people who currently live in Paris.
The council said it decided to run the scheme as a lottery after receiving so many expressions of interest. The draw will be held in January.
But a spot in one of the historic cemeteries is likely to come at a hefty cost for the winners.
Under the conditions, they must restore the monument they buy within six months, with the new design “faithful to the original”.
They must also make arrangements to acquire a burial plot nearby, also within a certain timeframe.
If either condition is not met, the sale will be cancelled and buyers will lose their money.
Burial plots are leased for a fixed term or in perpetuity.
Description sheets for the available monuments suggest a burial plot will set buyers back €976 for a 10-year lease, €3,354 for 30 years, or €5,260 for 50 years.
If a lease expires with no renewal, the plot can be resold and reused. For perpetuity, the cost is €17,668.
