The lipstick covered gravestone. 

For years Oscar Wilde’s loyal readers have taken flights to Paris to make the famous pilgrimage to the Dublin writer’s Paris grave. Though fans once graffitied the grave, it quickly became fashionable to kiss the writer’s world-famous tombstone in an act of appreciation.

But after nearly 20 years of ‘graffiti’ at the Père Lachaise cemetery site, Paris has decided to clean off the red lipstick that's become a popular tourist tradition. Marking the 111^th anniversary of the writer’s death, actor Rupert Everett, who has been writing a book about the Wilde, unveiled the new look tombstone protected by a wall of glass.

Though fans have expressed disapproval of the impersonal glass wall, Rupert Everett, who has starred in a screen adaptation of ‘The Importance of Being Earnest’, was quick to speak for Wilde, “I don't think he would like graffiti very much because he loved perfect clothes, perfect houses, I think he'd like his statue to be clean and beautiful.”

After the writer was condemned to a two-year jail sentence in London for homosexuality, Oscar Wilde moved to Paris on release where he died in 1900.

The unveiling of the new grave was attended by some of the writer’s family members, as well as Irish and French officials. The memorial was part funded by the Irish government.

“When good Americans die they go to Paris.” was Wilde’s famous line in ‘Women Of No Importance’, but the French capital is only a cheap flight away this holiday, so why not find great flight, hotel and car rental deals with CheapOair.com.

Source: Reuters

Photo: Mark Ziubinski