| Summary: | The plaster-casts sculpted by Paul Landowski in preparation for his Monument à la Victoire et à la Paix, commemorating the collaboration between French and Moroccan troops during the First World War, have recently been found at Casablanca. But they are not well protected and are threatened with destruction. The work bears witness to the art of the sculptor Landowksi but also to the political issues at stake in the relations between France and Morocco, both during the war and under the Protectorate. The statue was originally erected in the main square of Casablanca, but its transfer in 1961 to Senlis, in France, suggests something of the highly symbolic nature of this cenotaph. This is underlined by the accompanying texts which celebrate the heroism of Moroccan troops not only in the trenches in France, but also, subsequently, in the ‘pacification’ policies undertaken in Morocco by Lyautey.
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