Torgon, France

Torgon was a suburb of Rouen, near Saint-Clément. In 1996, a garden gnome liberation society (regarded as a rival by the Garden Gnome Freedom Front) seized a dozen gnomes, along with their wheelbarrows, windmills, hedgehogs, and deer. A week later, these ornaments turned up in the town square, with the gnomes repainted to be wearing business suits (one was even holding a briefcase) and the inverted wheelbarrows painted to look like computers. This was a typical act of this group, which sought to liberate France from kitsch and tacky art.