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topicnews · September 15, 2024

Grave robbers repeatedly plunder this cemetery in Paraguay

Grave robbers repeatedly plunder this cemetery in Paraguay

At a cemetery in Asunción, Paraguay, the dead receive more visits from thieves than from relatives. Photographer Aurélien Buttin visited the graves.

At night, the living come to the dead to take their last belongings. The treasure hunters climb over meter-high walls. They smash the glass windows of mausoleums, they break open coffins that are hundred years old, they rummage through graves. If you’re lucky, you’ll find gold, but there isn’t much left. Silver is more likely. Or ceramics, bronze, or at least the metal letters that the bereaved used to write the names of the deceased and their final farewell on the graves. The inscriptions are quickly removed. The names remain, however, because the letters have protected the stone from the weather. But they fade.