Shadows on the Wall
Legal battles forced scientists to wait three years before studying the Paleolithic art of Chauvet Cave
By PHIL COUVRETTE/PARIS

On Dec. 18 1994, three amateur spelunkers stumbled across a cave near Vallon-Pont-d'Arc in southeastern France containing hundreds of paintings, some dating back 30,000 years--the oldest ever found. The discovery ranks as one of the most significant from the Paleolithic era in Europe, but for the spelunkers--Jean-Marie Chauvet, Christian Hillaire and Eliette Brunel--the find has produced little but trouble and uncertainty. From the moment on Dec. 28, 1994 when they reported to the Ministry of Culture on their "Christmas present to humanity," as some romantically put it, the cave has provided more work for lawyers than for archeologists. Numerous legal actions and court cases prevented scientific study for three years.

At the center of the storm stands Chauvet, whose name the cave now bears. A part-time park ranger for the Ministry of Culture, he was off duty when he found the cave. Having it named after him was the last good thing that happened to Chauvet. One month after the discovery, the Ministry of Culture issued him a warrant for a "temporary prospecting mission," backdated to four days before the find. It was a "standard procedure so he could claim expenses" according to the government--but it was not initiated by Chauvet, as regulations would require. Instead, the warrant came at the behest of Jean-Pierre Daugas, head of regional archeology, and was signed by Patrice Beghain, head of Rhone-Alpes cultural affairs. Chauvet claims the high-ranking officials wanted to assert discovery rights for the government.

The document described Chauvet as a "government employee assisted by two volunteers," and deprived all three of rights to the photographs taken shortly after the cave's discovery, some of which were published in the Feb. 13, 1995 edition of TIME. A few months after the warrant was issued, Chauvet was obliged to surrender the film to an agency representing the ministry.

Seeing the ministry reap the rewards of their find, Chauvet and his two co-discoverers issued the ministry a formal letter to keep it from exploiting pictures taken in the cave. In June 1995, a Paris court called a moratorium, barring the government from selling or distributing pictures of the cave. The following year, the discoverers initiated legal proceedings against the ministry for producing a fake document. "Financial benefits aren't the issue," said one of the discoverers to the daily Le Figaro at the time. However, the three say that the revenue generated from their book on the discovery, La Grotte Chauvet, has barely covered their legal costs.

The situation for Chauvet and his fellow spelunkers took a different turn in July, when three high-ranking ministry officials were summoned to appear in court at the end of November, two on charges of producing a fake document--the backdated warrant--and a third for complicity. "I hope the trial will mark the beginning of our being reinstated," says Chauvet.