Modeste Testas Monument in Bordeaux

In September 2021, the Modeste Testas statue in Bordeaux, which commemorates the city’s involvement in the slave trade, was covered in white plaster. Initially, the City Council believed there were racist motives behind the move, so they issued a legal complaint and started an investigation. However, it was established that the culprit was an art student who remained anonymous and had no racist motive; thus, the complaint was withdrawn. As such, this case study reveals the importance of intentionality – specifically, the intention to degrade – in instances of statute contestation. While this act was not necessarily a contestation of the statue and the history it represents, the event can open a conversation about the broader issue of Bordeaux’s confrontation with its slave-trading past.