Since the '90s, mostly women started leaving lipstick kisses on his tomb in Paris' Père ... causing a bit more stone to wear away," he said. "No amount of appeals to the public did any good ...

Everett, who is writing about the poet’s life, spoke at a podium Wednesday bearing a poster of the pre-renovation tomb covered in notes and lipstick at Paris’ famed Pere Lachaise cemetery.

A brick wall lines one end of Bar Bar, with lipstick kisses smattered along every other brick. It's a relic from the past—or so a sign on one end of the wall explains. "Who's lips are these?" ...