'À la mémoire de Gérard Lebovici, assassin à Paris..."
Can someon who knows more about the situationists let me know in what world they were a legitimate target for political murder because that doesnt mesh well with the general artistic activism I know of the group and I need clarification.
Thanks.
The answer is going to be disappointing.
Gérard Lebovici, who was assassinated in a basement carpark on 5 March 1984, was what we'd call today a multimedia entrepreneur: he created the talent agency Artmédia, produced art-house and successful commercial movies, ran a publishing house (Champ Libre) and owned a movie theatre (the Studio Cujas, which showed only Debord's movies). He was a successful businessman and a radical left-winger, a close friend of Guy Debord, though not a situationist himself (see Debord's letter to his translator Paolo Salvadori of 11 December 1984). He was also fascinated by the underworld, which was fashionable for left-wing intellectuals at the time (see their support for gangsters-turned-writer Pierre Goldman and Roger Knobelspeiss).
Lebovici's death, which looked like a professional "hit", was never solved and remains mysterious to this day. Here are the main hypotheses.
The Mesrine connection. Jacques Mesrine was a famous gangster (and occasional author) of the 1970s who had been killed by the police in 1979. Lebovici was close to his daughter Sabrina, and had meant to produce a movie about Mesrine. The assassination could result from a personal vengeance of a Mesrine associate, from the jealousy of Sabrina's boyfriend (a film director), from a money laundering dispute with organized crime etc. This remains the most likely angle.
The video connection. Lebovici may have refused to be involved in video piracy (VHS was a growing market at the time), or in a turf war about the movie rights of film star Jean-Paul Belmondo (both hypotheses lead to the same man, video entrepreneur René Château).
The call-girl / spy connection. Véronique Troy, a former lover of Lebovici, a call-girl / actress turned secret agent, was found dead in Yemen in 1977. Her father, an alleged Russian spy, could have meant to avenge her. Yes, it's a bad movie plot, but Lebovici did patronize brothels and loved the thrill of the underworld.
The left-wing connection. Immediately after Lebovici's death, part of the French press turned on Guy Debord, accusing him of being a guru, and of having, perhaps, ordered his assassination for some reason. This lead was taken seriously by the police for a while. The French terrorist group Action Directe was particularly active in that period. Debord was pissed off, sued everyone for libel - left-wing or right-wing - and won (he later wrote a book about this).
The right-wing / state connection. Two prominent left-wing activists, Pierre Goldman (also a gangster) and Henri Curiel, had been assassinated in Paris in the late 1970s in a similar fashion, with the perpetrators being possibly far-right activists and/or state agents. Lebovici's alleged support of left-wing terrorist groups like the Red Brigades and the Red Army Faction, or his support for criminals like Mesrine, could have been a reason for his assassination, either by far-right terrorists or by state operators. However, while one can find credible reasons for the murders of Goldman and Curiel, who were both public figures with numerous enemies, it's harder to do the same with Lebovici.
Suicide, according to film-maker Costa-Gavras. Lebovici had cancer and a colostomy bag. It doesn't explain the "hit" staging though.
In his numerous letters to friends and associates, Guy Debord seems to be completely befuddled by the crime. In a letter dated of 29 April 1984 to Salvadori, he thinks that the crime was caused either by a movie distribution deal gone wrong, or by his relation with Sabrina Mesrine (whom Debord calls "unhinged"). In a letter to Lebovici's widow Floriana (24 January 1985), he says that he doesn't believe in the "fascist lead". In another letter to Salvadori (11 December 1984), he also doubts that the crime was politically motivated:
Either the state crime, this time, inaugurates a new style (in which case we will often see this particular modernism elsewhere), or it is originally a private operation, for private interests (or illusions of interest).
The crime remains unsolved. It's unlikely that it had anything to do with Debord and the situationists (who had more or less disappeared as a movement by 1984).
Sources
Should say dedicated not donated.