The leadership of the monument changed in 2018 and they hired the guy to finish the restoration: <a href="https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/12-ans-apres-sa-restauration-clandestine-l-horloge-du-pantheon-fonctionne-enfin-2199259" rel="nofollow">https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/12-ans-apres-sa-res...</a> (In French)
Stories like this restores my faith in humanity.<p>Using skill and irreverence for the common good, making the restoration basically a piece of performance art in itself.<p>I'd buy the UnterGünthers a beer.
I think it's wonderful that people are restoring public objects of historical value, but nowhere does the article explain why this has to be clandestine.<p>The article says that Monum's leadership didn't want to publicise the repair, but why would they? It would be a tacit admission that illegal entry into protected historical sites is justifiable for the purpose of 'guerilla restoration' - wherever such a position is valid or not, endorsing it would indeed compromise Monum and similar organisations. Monsieur Jeannot was surely right in this regard.<p>That leaves me wondering why simply asking wasn't an option. Are Monum really so resistant to offers of restoration that a few phone calls and a press release couldn't have done the job, saving both sides a lawsuit?
2012 Wired magazine article about the group.
<a href="https://www.wired.com/story/the-new-french-underground/" rel="nofollow">https://www.wired.com/story/the-new-french-underground/</a>