Covert Clock Restorers Won't Do Time

PARIS—A group of covert restorers who spent a year secretly repairing the iconic clock tower on Paris’s Pantheon have been cleared of breaking the law, the Guardian reports. In a bizarre scenario, four members of the underground “cultural guerrilla” movement set up a lounge and workshop, complete with working Internet and furniture they built themselves, in a secret area of the building. Then they dismantled and fixed the elaborate antique clock in the 18th-century monument that had been neglected since the 1960s. After the group, which goes by the name Untergunther and includes a professional clockmaker, finished its repairs in 2006, it notified Pantheon officials, and the Centre of National Monuments promptly took legal action against the group for breaking into the monument.

The group, part of a larger, 150-member network known as UX, aims to restore France's cultural heritage. Its antics include restoring other treasures and staging impromptu concerts in rock quarries. They were unknown to police until 2004, when authorities discovered an underground cinema members had created, including a bar and restaurant, under the Seine.