A female artist shocked believers by stripping down and posing naked at a sacred Catholic site in Lourdes, France, in front of horrified believers visiting the Sanctuary.
Deborah de Robertis, known for her provocative appearances across the country, took off all of her clothes in front of the famous statue of Our Lady of Lourdes, in the Occitanie region. She had on only a blue veil on her head as she clasped her hands in front of her in a praying position at the pilgrimage hotspot.
Parents and children were present as the 34-year-old stood naked. One shocked bystander even tried covering the woman up with a veil.
Police were called to the scene immediately and Deborah was arrested and placed in custody for a few hours.
Prosecutor of Tarbes Pierre Aurignac said:
The police were called by people on the spot, they arrested her and placed her in custody for a few hours.
The 34-year-old performer was ordered to attend the correctional hearing on 19th May to be tried for sexual exhibition.
This is not the first time the artist has been in the news for exhibitionism. In October, she stripped naked in a performance at the Louvre Museum in Paris, next to the famous painting of the Mona Lisa, and faced court charges, which were dismissed shortly after the trial began. She was, however, given 35 hours of community service for biting a museum guard when he tried to remove her from the area.
Speaking in court, de Robertis said that performance was intended to “question the place of women in the history of art.”
