‘Love locks’ sale raises thousands for refugees
paris — A charity auction selling off “love locks” from Paris bridges to raise money for refugees on Saturday brought in over $270,000, though the event was briefly interrupted by protests from far-right nationalists.
For years tourists inscribed their initials on padlocks and hooked them to the railings of bridges, most famously the Pont des Arts near the Louvre, throwing the key into the River Seine to express their undying devotion.
But officials cracked down on the practice and started removing the locks in 2015 after one section of the Pont des Arts collapsed under the weight of thousands of locks.
Hundreds of people took part in the auction at Credit Municipal de Paris in which 150 bunches of the locks — mounted on displays of wood or recycled paving stones, or hanging from acrylic stands — went under the hammer.
Fifteen sections of the original Pont des Arts railings mounted on wood were also auctioned.
Most of the lots had been expected to go for 150 to 200 euros each ($165-$220) but one set of locks fastened to a replica of the Eiffel Tower mounted on a display of recycled paving stone — called the “French Lover” — sold for 2,400 euros. Another display with 22 locks went for 1,200 euros, one with 17 for 1,000.
But the most expensive piece — a section of the Pont des Arts railing that weighed 470 kilogrammes (1,000 pounds) — sold for 17,000 euros. Other sections of the bridge went for between 3,500 and 12,000 euros.
The auction raised a total of 249,610 euros ($273,000), which will go to three associations helping to accommodate the influx of migrants into the city: Solipam, the Salvation Army and Emmaus Solidarite. American tourist Francy Blackwood, on holiday in Paris with her husband, said she wanted to return with a “piece of Paris”.
“We put our own lock on the bridge six years ago. It’s not here, but it’s such a great tradition we’d like to take some of it home with us,” she said. —