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'Come and get it': French refuse to hand Joan of Arc's ring back to Britain
telegraph.co.uk
For the past 600 years, she has been feted in France as a national heroine for "chucking the English out" of the country.
On Monday, Joan of Arc was once again at the heart of a furious battle between Europe's oldest enemies, this time over the rights to her ring.
Last month, a gold-plated silver ring believed to have been owned by the legendary French martyr, who defeated the English before being burned at the stake, was sold at an auction in London for nearly £300,000.
Given to Joan by her parents as a devotional object for her first communion, it was seized from her prison at her death in 1431 by a pro-English bishop and taken as war booty to England, where it remained for six centuries.
The French, however, finally cried victory when they won a tense bidding battle over the relic, whose pre-sale estimate was only £10,000.
To mark the ring's triumphant return, the buyers, a historically-themed French amusement park called Le Puy du Fou, staged a lavish ceremony on Sunday before 5,000 people near Nantes, western France.
"It's a little bit of France that has returned. The ring has come back to France and will stay here," Philippe de Villiers, the founder of Puy de Fou told the crowd before a rousing rendition of the Marseillaise.
However, he then revealed that there was a new twist to the Joan of Arc saga.
“The British government has sent our lawyer an unprecedented demand: the return of the ring to London,” Mr de Villers told the shocked throng.
“We are told that the National Arts Council considers this ring part of those objects with, and I quote ‘high national symbolic value’ and as such should have part of a special legislation.”
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