Update: May 28, 2025, 4 p.m. • Todd Mitchell contacted The Salt Lake Tribune after this story published. He shared that he went back to Paris in 2003 with his bust to take some photos of it with Morrison’s headstone. He still has the bust sitting in his theatre room.
Nearly four decades ago, a 300-pound bust of psychedelic rock legend Jim Morrison of The Doors was stolen from his grave in Paris. On Monday, French police said the bust — covered in fan graffiti — was found during an unrelated investigation.
Morrison and his music have inspired generations of devoted fans, many of whom still show up to honor the musician in Paris at his grave in Père Lachaise cemetery.
In the mid ’90s, the Morrison devotion drove one Utahn to not only visit the graveyard in Paris, but hide inside a tomb in an attempt to replace the stolen bust.
Todd Mitchell, from Layton, along with his nephew Dan, hid in the tomb until it was dark. They drilled four holes into Morrison’s headstone and tried to mount a bronze bust of Morrison until they were stopped by guards. The two men were arrested, and later let go after they were told that drilling holes in tombs is illegal in Paris.
The original bust was created in 1981 by Mladen Mikulin, a Croatian sculptor, to commemorate the 10th anniversary of Morrison’s death, according to reporting from the Associated Press. Morrison died in 1971 of a heart attack and respiratory problems and was found in a Paris bathtub.
(Joe Marquette | AP) The grave of Jim Morrison, lead singer of the rock group "The Doors," at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris, Sept. 7, 1971.
Mitchell was 36 when he stowed away in the Paris graveyard, though he became a fan of Morrison long before that. He and his wife Lori had visited the grave a year prior, according to past reporting from The Salt Lake Tribune.
Seeing the grave sans bust was “devastating,” Mitchell said at the time.
(Jacques Brinon | AP) Flowers and candles adorn the grave of legendary rock front man and poet with the Doors rock band, Jim Morrison at the Pere Lachaise cemetery in Paris on Monday, July 3, 2011.
Mitchell came home from the trip and commissioned Salt Lake City sculptor J. Kenneth Allein to make a replica of the bust for $1,700, dipping into his retirement fund to pay for it. After it was completed, Mitchell and his nephew got on a plane to Paris and cased the cemetery for two days.
(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) Todd Mitchell, left, shows bust he commissioned of Doors singer Jim Morrison that he and Dan Mitchell, right, tried to install on Morrison's headstone in Paris in 1994.
After returning to Utah from his first attempt to install the bust, Mitchell told The Tribune he would go back and try to put the replica bust into place again. He again flew to Paris with the bust in 2003 to take pictures with it at the gravesite, but he did not install it.
It is unclear if the Jim Morrison estate will add the original bust back to the singer’s grave.
