17 FAKE RODINS at the North Carolina Museum of Art
Original published April 1, 2006 (Updated July 24, 2009)
NOTE: All footnotes are enclosed with { }.
All the so-called “22 bronze sculptures by French sculptor Auguste Rodin {and} sculpture of Rodin by Camille Claudel,”{1} officially donated on November 9, 2005 by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation to the state-run North Carolina Museum of Art, are "something that is not what it purports to be"{2} which is one legal definition of -fake-.
Seventeen of those non-disclosed fakes, attributed as Auguste Rodin sculptures, were actually posthumously forged between 1919 and 1987 with counterfeit “A. Rodin” signatures posthumously applied.
Auguste Rodin died in 1917.
The dead don't sculpt, much less sign anything.
The eighteenth fake, attributed as a sculpture by Camille Claudel, is a forgery forged in bronze after she was interned to an insane asylum in 1913.
Additionally, when non-disclosed reproductions and posthumous fakes are misrepresented as sculptures by a cultural institution ie., museum such as the North Carolina Museum of Art and its’ principals for monetary considerations, such as $25 million dollars{3}, then “a knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment”{4} may come into play which is one legal definition of -fraud-.
This monograph documents the true chronology of these twenty-three non-disclosed reproductions and/or fakes, the violation of Auguste Rodin’s 1916 Will that gave to the State of France the “reproduction rights of the objects given by him” and other serious contentious issues of authenticity surrounding the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s so-called “$25 million gift of Rodin sculptures {to} the North Carolina Museum of Art.”{5}
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
BRIEF SUMMARY - WHY ARE THESE 17 RODINS FAKE?
TRUE CHRONOLOGY
1. NOT FROM RODIN’S ORIGINAL PLASTERS
2. COUNTERFEIT SIGNATURES
3. EDITIONS NOT LIMITED TO TWELVE
4. CANTOR FOUNDATION -PICKS- THE COLOR
5. LIFE-CAST FALSELY ATTRIBUTED TO RODIN
6. MUSEE RODIN GIVEN REPRODUCTION RIGHTS
7. CORRUPT MUSEE RODIN
8. AMERICA IS NOT A FRENCH PROVINCE
9. CANTOR FOUNDATION’S AVARICE
10. 25 MILLION REASONS TO DEFRAUD
11. NEW YORK CIVIL CODES
12. CONNOISSEURSHIP
13. ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
14. CONCLUSION
PRINCIPALS
FOOTNOTES
WEBSITE
ADDENDUM
BRIEF SUMMARY - WHY ARE THESE 17 -RODINS- FAKE?
1. NOT FROM RODIN’S ORIGINAL PLASTERS
The Musee Rodin admits they do not reproduce from
Rodin’s original plaster but plaster reproductions, making
them second-generation-removed -fakes-.
2. COUNTERFEIT SIGNATURES
The Musee Rodin posthumously forges counterfeit
“A Rodin” or “Rodin” signatures to these second-
generation-removed -fakes-.
3. EDITIONS NOT LIMITED TO TWELVE
The Musee Rodin doesn’t always limit their editions
to twelve as mandated by French decrees.
4. CANTOR FOUNDATION -PICKS- THE COLOR
The Musee Rodin allows wealthy benefactors such as
the Cantors to picked the color {patina} of a bronze that
they in turn promote as an original Auguste Rodin.
5. LIFE-CAST FALSELY ATTRIBUTED TO RODIN
The Musee Rodin violates Auguste Rodin’s legacy by
attributing to him a life-cast of his hand posthumously
altered. The very thing he denied doing, -casting from life-,
is falsely attributed to him as if it makes -no- difference.
TRUE CHRONOLOGY
NOTE: The titles and dates listed below are from the News Observer newspaper’s published November 13, 2005 “Tour of Collection” article concerning the donation to the North Carolina Museum of Art by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation of “twenty-two Rodins and a Camille Claudel” along with “a display of the lost-wax casting process.” The link for that article is: www.newsobserver.com/105/story/366127.html
Additionally, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s numbering system “CCID #” is noted directly from their “Working Checklists” or published catalogues. See ADDENDUM at the end of this Press Release for additional documentation on the objects listed below
1881-82
1. “UGOLINO AND SONS, modeled 1881-82,” (Foundry: unknown), CCID #1550
1902 to 1952
2. “CALL TO ARMS, modeled 1879,” (Alexis Rudier foundry between 1902 to 1952), CCID #1546
3. “I AM BEAUTIFUL, modeled before 1886,” (Alexis Rudier foundry between 1902 to 1952), CCID #1714
4. “FUGITIVE LOVE, modeled before 1887,” Alexis Rudier foundry between 1902 to 1952), CCID #1305
5. “THE THINKER, modeled 1880, reduced in 1903, (Alexis Rudier foundry between 1902 to 1952), CCID #1499
Auguste Rodin died in 1917
1919-1952
6. “THE KISS, modeled 1881-82,” (Alexis Rudier foundry between 1919 to 1952), CCID #1689
1950’s
7. “THE CATHEDRAL, modeled 1908,” (George Rudier foundry in 1955), CCID #1386
8. “FLYING FIGURE, modeled 1890-91,” (George Rudier after 1957), CCID #1302
1960’s
9. “MONUMENTAL HEAD OF PIERRE DE WIESSANT, modeled about 1884-85, enlarged about 1909,” (Godard foundry after 1969), CCID #775
10. “DANAID, modeled 1885-89” (Georges Rudier foundry in 1969 or by Godard foundry in 1979), CCID #11700 or CCID #1600
1970’s
11. “NUDY STUDY OF BALZAC (TYPE‘C’), modeled about 1892, reduction date unknown”
(Georges Rudier foundry in 1972), CCID #16800
12. “MASK OF THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN NOSE , modeled 1863-64” (Coubertin foundry after 1973), CCID #1605
13. “ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PREACHING, “about 1880, cast in 1974” (Georges Rudier foundry ), CCID #1601
14. “JEAN D’AIRE, NUDE , modeled 1885-86,” (Georges Rudier foundry in 1974), CCID #1554
15. “THE PRAYER, modeled 1910,” (Godard foundry in 1979), CCID #1553
1980’s
16. “FALLEN CARYATID WITH STONE, modeled 1880-81,” (Coubertin foundry in 1982), CCID #1563
17. “JEAN DE FIENNES, VETU, modeled 1885-86,,” (Coubertin foundry in 1983), CCID #1330
18. “SORROW, modeled 1889,” (Coubertin foundry in 1983), CCID #1356
19. “THE THREE SHADES, 1880-1904,” (Coubertin foundry in 1983 or 1991), CCID #1343 or CCID #1628
20. “MONUMENTAL TORSO OF THE WALKING MAN, modeled about 1905,” (Godard foundry in 1985), CCID #1410
21. “CYBELE, about 1890, enlarged 1904,” (Coubertin foundry 1982 or 1987, CCID #1189 or CCID #1473
22. “TOILETTE OF VENUS AND ANDROMEDE, date modeled unknown,” (Godard foundry in 1987), CCID #1510
Camille Claudel interned in 1913, died in 1943.
23. “BUST OF RODIN , 1888-92, date of cast unknown,” (Alexis Rudier foundry after 1913), CCID #593
NOTE: On page 190 in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin, A Magnificent Obsession catalogue, the so-called Camille Claudel “Bust of Rodin” is listed with a “1888-92, date of cast unknown” date and the “Alexis Rudier” foundry.
The Alexis Rudier foundry went into business in 1902 till 1952, some ten years after the listed date of "1881-92" for this so-called Camille Claudel "Bust of Rodin."
The Alexis Rudier foundry is documented to have reproduced Camille Claudel’s work after her internment in 1913{6}. The documented foundries to cast the Camille Claudel’s “Bust of Rodin,” before her 1913 internment, was Adolphe Gruet and Francois Rudier.
“Consequently, whenever it is decided to release a new ‘subject,’ a copy is first made from the old mould which can be sent without risk to the foundry where it undergoes the necessary preparations for casting. It is coated with an unmoulding agent, usually in a dark colour, and cut, before being cast again. This practice not only ensures absolute fidelity to the original but also preserves the old plasters which are obviously more valuable since they were made during the lifetime of Rodin.”
Musee Rodin curator Antoinette Le Normaid-Romain on the www.musee-rodin.fr website
1. NOT FROM RODIN’S ORIGINAL PLASTERS
In violation of Auguste Rodin’s 1916 Will, which gave upon his death the State of France the “right of reproduction to objects given by him,”{7} the Musee Rodin admits on their www.musee-rodin.fr{8} website that they do not send Auguste Rodin’s original plasters to the foundry for casting in bronze but instead they send posthumously reproduced plaster reproductions. Auguste Rodin’s 1916 Will is further expounded upon in Section 6 of this News Release.
A -reproduction-, by definition, is a copy of an original work of art done by someone other than the artist.
Therefore, any bronzes reproduced from these plaster reproductions would not be reproductions of an original work of art as required by the definition of reproduction but copies of copies. As a result these second-generation removed three-dimensional objects in bronze would be “something that is not what it purports to be” which is, once again, one legal definition of -fake-.
In other words, by the Musee Rodin avoiding sending the hypothetical original plasters to the foundry, they have willingly given up the authentic original surface details made by the working fingers of Auguste Rodin himself or that Auguste Rodin approved through his collaboration with his “sculpteur reproducteur habituel”{9} Henri Lebosse. Each time the surface of one of these subjects is approximated by the necessary crude handling of the materials used in the reproduction processes, there is visible change. The resulting pieces may be interesting to look at, but it is an absurdity to pretend they are just the way Rodin would have wanted and intended for them to appear.
Detail from "Petite marye sur Terasse before 1885" bronze "Fonte E. Godard © 1995," p 29 & 45 respectively in the RODIN catalogue published by Tasende Gallery in 1999 in collaboration with the Musee Rodin.
2. COUNTERFEIT SIGNATURES
All “22 bronze sculptures by French sculptor Auguste Rodin {and} sculpture of Rodin by Camille Claudel,”{10} given as a “$25 million gift” to the North Carolina Museum of Art, are listed in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s published 2001 Rodin, A Magnificent Obsession catalogue as being “Signed A. Rodin” and “Signed Camille Claudel” despite eighteen of them having been reproduced posthumously or after Camille Claudel’s internment to an asylum.
The Musee Rodin counterfeits either an “A Rodin” or “Rodin” signature to their second-generation removed fakes they posthumously forged in bronze. This fraud is confirmed in Tasende Gallery’s published 1999 Sculptures from the Musee Rodin, Paris catalogue. On page 47, it states: “All work cast under commission by the Musee Rodin includes the following mandatory inscriptions” - Rodin’s signature.”
The “A Rodin” and “Rodin” inscription/signatures respectively to the so-called Auguste Rodin “Jules Dalou”{11} in 1925 and the “Damned Woman”{12} in 1979 clearly exposes the Musee Rodin’s capacity for fraud.
Auguste Rodin (d 1917) was still dead in 1925 and 1979.
The dead don't inscribed or apply their signature.
STAMPED WITH THE ARTIST’S SIGNATURE
The former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent documents on page 22 of her 1991 RODIN{13} catalogue that during Auguste Rodin’s lifetime, Auguste Rodin supplied a sample of his signature to the foundries for them to copy and stamp onto the bronzes they cast for him. Upon Auguste Rodin’s death in 1917, the right to stamp his signature died with him.
WHAT IS A SIGNATURE?
On page 1386 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -signature- is defined as: “A person’s name or mark written by that person or at the person’s direction.”
Under North Carolina Statutes 25-C-10, Article 2, Definitions, a -signed print- "means a finished fine print autographed by the artist and not by mechanical means of reproductions, whether or not it was signed or unsigned in the plate.”
WHAT IS COUNTERFEIT?
On page 354 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -counterfeit- is defined as: “To forge, copy, or imitate (something) without a right to do so and with the purpose of deceiving or defrauding.”
Would the posthumous application of a counterfeit “Rodin’s signature” to posthumously reproduced objects be done with “the purpose of deceiving or defrauding?”
Excerpt from p 121, 1976 Philadelphia Museum of Art's Sculpture of Auguste Rodin catalogue
3. EDITIONS NOT LIMITED TO TWELVE
On page 121 in Philadelphia Museum of Art’s published 1976 Sculpture of Auguste Rodin{14} catalogue, there are -eighteen- 79 inch high “The Thinkers” listed and one of them is listed as: “Cast no. 10/12” and owned by “Beverly Hills, Cantor Fitzgerald Art Foundation.”
This is the same Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation that, on their current 2007 www.cantorfoundation.org/ Rodin/Bronze/ rbrz.html website, states: “In 1956 French law limited production to twelve casts of each model. - This law was reestablished and strictly imposed in 1981.”
If the facts contradict the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s promotion that any of the so-called Rodins are “limit production of twelve casts,” can we truly count on anything they state?
"The last stage in the casting process: patination." (p 34, 1998 Sculpture Review)
4. CANTOR FOUNDATION -PICKS- THE COLOR
In 1996, the Musee Rodin allowed the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation to pick the color of Auguste Rodin’s “Monument to Victor Hugo” being posthumously reproduced in bronze.
This is confirmed in the Fall 1998 Sculpture Review trade magazine published “Casting of the Monument” article by the Coubertin founders Frederic Colombier and Jean Dubo. On page 34 of this article, the founders wrote: “After presentation of samples, the Musee Rodin and the Cantor Foundation approved the color to be achieved.”
This is additionally confirmed in Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s published 1998 Rodin’s Monument to Victor Hugo catalogue. On page 10 of the “Forward,” the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation Executive Director Rachael Blackburn states: “Ruth Butler, professor emerita at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, who wrote the introduction to this catalogue, offered her insightful guidance and worked closely with Mrs. Cantor, the Musee Rodin, and the foundry to determine the delicate nuances of the monument’s patina.”
In September 21, 1999 telephone conversation with the Musee Rodin Board of Directors member Ruth Butler, she informed me that Iris Cantor had asked her to observe the casting and patina of Auguste Rodin’s “Monument to Victor Hugo” bronze that the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation was purchasing from the Musee Rodin. When asked whether there was any historical research that would document what Auguste Rodin might had selected as the patina for this bronze, Ruth Butler answered: “it would be up to the foundry.”{15}
Finally, when asked Ruth Butler whether the Coubertin foundry, which went into business in 1963 some forty-six years after Auguste Rodin’s death, had asked for her approval of the patina, she answered: “Well.”
www.cantorfoundation.org/Rodin/Gallery/rvg65.html
5. LIFE-CAST FALSELY ATTRIBUTED TO RODIN
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s so-called “Hand of Rodin Holding Torso” is a life-cast combined with a plaster cast that was posthumously reproduced in bronze by the Georges Rudier foundry in 1968 with a counterfeit “A Rodin” signature applied.
Remember, Auguste Rodin died in 1917.
This life-cast is confirmed in the Musee Rodin’s published 2004 RODIN catalogue by the Musee Rodin curator Ralphael Masson and archivist Veronique Mattiussi. On page 210, the authors wrote: “Shortly before Rodin’s death, {Musee du Luxembourg curator & future Musee Rodin director} Benedite asked that a studio assistant make a cast of the sculptor’s hand.”{16}
Additionally, the posthumous counterfeiting of Auguste Rodin's signature to this life-cast, is backhandedly confirmed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s published 1976 Sculpture of Auguste Rodin catalogue by John Tancock. On page 637, the author wrote: “This composite work, made from a life cast and an original work - {was} not signed or inscribed.”
So, the moment Auguste Rodin dies, the very thing he denied his whole life doing, casting from life, is now credited to him by the Musee Rodin and others like the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, as if it makes -no- difference.
And to think the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s “Mission Statement” states they “focuses on the art of Auguste Rodin.”
Auguste Rodin's 1917 funeral.
6. MUSEE RODIN GIVEN REPRODUCTION RIGHTS
In Auguste Rodin’s 1916 Will, the State of France was given, upon his death, “the reproduction rights of those objects given by him.”
This is documented on page 285 in the former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent’s “Observations on Rodin and His Founders” essay, published in the National Gallery of Art’s published 1981 Rodin Rediscovered catalogue. In part, as noted above, the former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent documents that the Auguste Rodin’s Will stated: “notwithstanding the transfer of artistic ownership authorized to the State of M. Rodin, the latter expressly reserves for himself the enjoyment during his life, of the reproduction rights of those objects given by him.”
These specific details of Auguste Rodin’s Will are additional confirmed on page 504 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation assisted published 1993 Rodin, Shape of Genius biography by Ruth Butler. In part, the author writes: “a draft of an act of donation was drawn up and signed in Meudon on April 1, 1916, in the presence of Clementel, Valention (representing the Ministere des Beaux-Arts), and Antole de Monzie, the lawyer and deputy who had helped prepare the deed. The document included a number of safeguards for Rodin: at the Hotel Biron--thenceforth to be called the Musee Rodin--he was to be in charge of personnel. He would have the right to use the building until the end of his life, and the state would install heat. All reproduction rights to his art would remain with Rodin during his lifetime.”{17}
FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE MUSEUM OF FRANCE JEAN CHATELAIN
These two perspectives are clearly perpetuated on page 279 in the National Gallery of Art’s published 1981 Rodin Rediscovered catalogue in the “An Original in Sculpture” essay by the professor at the University of Paris and former director of the Museums of France Jean Chatelain. In part, the professor writes: “When the twelfth copy of ‘The Burghers of Calais’ is cast, the same plaster model will be used as was used the first time in 1894, but of course different craftsmen will carry out the casting.”
Unfortunately contrary to Jean Chatelain' perspective, as documented earlier in Section 1 of this monograph, the Musee Rodin violates Auguste Rodin’s 1916 Will and does not use Auguste Rodin’s original plasters ie., “objects given by him” for casting in bronze.
Musee Rodin, Paris (Source: www.musee-rodin.fr)
7. CORRUPT MUSEE RODIN
The moment of Rodin’s death in 1917, like vultures waiting to pick his bones, his former collaborators and those administratively entrusted to protect his legacy, begin subverting it.
CORRUPT MUSEE RODIN DIRECTOR LEONCE BENEDITE
A prime example of this subversion can be found in Albert Elsen’s 1985 Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin book. On page 148, the author states: “As events after Rodin’s death were to prove, Benedite did overstep his authority on certain occasions. In the matter of the final assembly of the doorway, Judith Cladel, who was dismissed by Benedite as a curator at the Musee Rodin, wrote during the years 1933-36 that workmen told her in 1917 that Benedite edited their efforts on at least one occasion in a way they felt Rodin would not have approved: “Some of Rodin’s scandalized assistants who cast his plasters made it known to me that, charged with the reassembly of The Gates of Hell, they received orders to place certain figures in different arrangement than that which the artist wanted, because 'that would be better'.”{18}
Additionally, one of those -occasions-, is noted in Albert Elsen’s Footnote 17 on page 253 of his book. The author writes: “In 1921, during the course of a trial on charges brought by the State against a founder who was casting Rodin’s work without authorization, it was shown that Benedite had authorized the enlargement of Rodin’s La Defense after the artist’s death.”
HENRI LEBOSSE, SCULPTEUR REPRODUCTEUR HABITUEL & BETRAYER
On page 253, in Albert Elsen’s “Rodin’s ‘Perfect Collaborator,’ Henri Lebosse” essay in the National Gallery of Art’s 1981 Rodin Rediscovered exhibition catalogue, the author writes: “From the mid-1890’s until his death, Rodin entrusted most if not all of his important enlargements and reductions to this dedicated and today unknown technician who referred to himself as Rodin’s ‘sculpteur reproducteur habituel.’”
Unfortunately, Henri Lebosse became one of Auguste Rodin’s biggest betrayers. Albert Elsen documents on page 256 of his essay that after August Rodin’s death in 1917, the Musee Rodin Director Benedite directed Henri Lebosse to increase the original scale of the sculpture “The Defense” four times. Albert Elsen writes: “Tragically for Rodin’s “perfect collaborator,” the Verdun enlargement became part of a 1920 scandal involving fake works, marble carvers who continued to turn out sculpture signed with Rodin’s name, and unauthorized bronze casts by the Barbedienne foundry.”
The Musee Rodin’s inauspicious beginnings after Auguste Rodin’s death in 1917 has not changed much in ninety years as documented by the current Musee Rodin’s deceptive application of counterfeit “A Rodin” signatures to second-generation removed bronze fakes in editions not always limited to twelve.
8. AMERICA IS NOT A FRENCH PROVINCE
There are quite a few in the museum and academic industry{19} who will defend and have defended the misrepresentation of reproductions, much less posthumous reproductions, as “works of visual art” ie. “sculptures” by making blanket statements that these reproduced objects are originals in exhibits in American museums because they adhere to current “French Law” or that nineteenth-century standards are applicable.
Well, America is not a French province and this is the twentieth-first century.
U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW - WHAT IS A SCULPTURE?
Under U.S. Copyright Law 101. Definitions, a “work of visual art” ie. “sculpture” is defined as: “multiple cast, carved, or fabricated sculptures of 200 or fewer that are consecutively numbered by the author and bear the signature or other identifying mark of the author.”
In otherwords, since the 54 non-disclosed fakes in this Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession exhibit were reproduced between 1919 and 1995 some two to seventy-eight years after Auguste Rodin’s death in 1917, it should be overtly obvious Auguste Rodin could not have “consecutively numbered” anything, much less applied his “signature.”
U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW - WHAT IS A REPRODUCTION?
Additionally, under U.S. Copyright Law 101. Definitions, a “derivative work” is defined as: “a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as {an} art reproduction.”
Furthermore, under U.S. Copyright 106A, it states the “Rights of Attribution - shall not apply to any reproduction.”
In other words, under U.S. Copyright Law, reproductions cannot be “attributed” to a living artist, much less a dead one.
FRENCH DECREE - FULL DISCLOSURE OF REPRODUCTIONS
The March 3, 1981 French decree no. 81.255, Article 9, in part, states: “All facsimiles, casts of casts, copies, or other reproductions of an original work of art as set out in Article 71 of Appendix III of the General Code of Taxes, executed after the date of effectiveness of the present decree, must carry in a visible and indelible manner the notation ‘Reproduction’.”{20}
So, whether it is U.S. Copyright Law or a French decree, reproductions are -reproductions-.
www.cantorfoundation.org
Rodin, Auguste,Gates of Hell, 3rd Maquette, 1880, Musee Rodin cast 1/8 in 1991, Bronze,Cast: 1/8 Foundry: Godard,Patina: X, Dimensions: 43 5/8 x 29 1/16 x 11 3/4 in., CC ID# 1511,Iris and B. Gerald Collection, Insurance $250,000
www.stanford.edu
Rodin, Auguste, Kiss, the, c. 1881-82, Bronze,Cast: X Foundry: Barbedienne, Patina: brown with gold highlights,Dimensions: 10 x 6 1/4 x 5 7/8 in., CC ID# 1711, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, gift of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, Insurance $50,000
(Source: Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s exhibition and insurance checklists.)
9. CANTOR FOUNDATION’S AVARICE{21}
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation is driven by money, not scholarship. This is made clear by their own words.
RODIN 101: DOCENT MANUEL
In the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s published “RODIN 101: DOCENT MANUEL,” it asks the following question: “Is there more ‘value’ ascribed to works made by one foundry than by another?”{22}
The answer given is: “In terms of monetary ‘value’ and interest to a collector or institution, there is a higher ‘value’ put on works produced during Rodin’s lifetime. All authorized casts made by any foundry are considered ‘originals.’ However, casts that were made before Rodin’s death in 1917 are often appraised for higher amounts and fetch larger sums at auctions.”
POSTHUMOUS REPRODUCTION $200,000 MORE THAN A LIFETIME CAST
Yet, as documented above, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation have an insured value of $250,000 for Gates of Hell, 3rd Maquette reproduced in 1991, $200,000 more than a potential lifetime cast of The Kiss insured for $50,000?
Should an extra large -fake- done in the last 15 years be valued five times more in insurance value than a potential lifetime cast done with the consent of the artist himself?
Doesn’t that directly contradict the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s written assertions in their RODIN 101: DOCENT MANUEL that “casts that were made before Rodin’s death in 1917 are often appraised for higher amounts and fetch larger sums at auctions?”
Where did the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation ever get this nonsense that reproductions are “original?”
FRENCH DECREE - ORIGINAL EDITIONS IN BRONZE
This is in all probability answered by a French decree titled: “Article 1 of a joint decree by the Ministries of Culture and Finance, issued on 5 September 1978,” which regulates the internal administration of the Musee Rodin. In part, it states: “The reproduction of works of Rodin and the editions sold by the Musee Rodin consists of; -Original editions in bronze. These are executed from models in terra cotta or in plaster realized by Rodin.”{23}
In this 1978 French decree, the term “original” is used as an adjective to describe and separate the Musee Rodin’s posthumous “editions” of reproductions in bronze of Auguste Rodin’s terra cotta or plasters from others who legally may posthumously reproduce in bronze any of Auguste Rodin’s work that is in the public domain.
IRIS & B. GERALD CANTOR FOUNDATION’S AGENDA
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s agenda of passing off their posthumous non-disclosed reproductions and second-generation-removed fakes as Auguste Rodin “originals” ie. “sculptures” is, in part, detailed on the MUSEUM-L Archives website.
This website allows those in the museum industry to post messages. The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s Coordinator of Museum Program posted on August 9, 2006 under the “Subject” subtitle the following: “Rodin Exhibition Available.” In part, it states: “The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation organizes and circulates traveling exhibitions of Rodin sculpture. - There is no curatorial fee. Host museums are responsible for the costs of insurance and incoming shipping from the previous venue, as well as all typical installation and other local expenses.”
In other words, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation generates revenue by renting their so-called “Rodin sculptures” to museums and as a result their posthumous non-disclosed reproductions and second-generation-removed fakes are given the rubber-stamped air of authenticity that a museum inherently bestows which perception-wise leads to increased values which leads to future windfalls such as:
AUGUSTE RODIN,
The Thinker, modeled 1880, reduced in 1903. Bronze,
14-3/4 x 7-7/8 x 11-3/8 in.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, promised gift to the North Carolina Museum of Art.
www.wag.mb.ca/htmlfiles/
WHATSON/EXIBITION/Rodin.asp
10. 25 MILLION REASONS TO DEFRAUD
On November 9, 2005 the North Carolina Museum of Art announced in their Press Release{24} that the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation will donate “the gift of 23 works of art, including 22 bronze sculptures by Rodin.” The News Observer newspaper, in Raleigh, North Carolina, published in a November 9, 2005 “Museum plans major Rodin center” article by Craig Jarvis that the “Museum director Larry Wheeler estimates the value of the gift at $25 million{25}.
This so-called -gift- was the successful catalyst for gaining the funding from the State of North Carolina for the North Carolina Museum of Art’s expansion for “new galleries, which will be part of a planned $75-million expansion initiative slated for completion in 2008. As part of the expansion, the Museum will establish a Rodin study center and name a Rodin gallery and adjacent garden in honor of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.”{26}
Unfortunately, if the North Carolina Museum of Art had established a “Rodin study center” before they accepted this so-called -gift-, the museum would have discovered there are absolutely no -works of visual art- ie., -sculptures- in this Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s donation. A minimum of scholarship and connoisseurship{27} would have disclosed this Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation donation is, at best, nothing more than -reproductions-, not sculptures. Even that generous supposition is corrupted because seventeen of these so-called "Rodins” were actually posthumously forged with counterfeit “A Rodin”{28} signatures applied between 1919 to 1987, two to seventy years after August Rodin’s death in 1917. How’d he do that?
On page 434 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, “defraud” is defined as: “To cause injury or loss to (a person) by deceit.” Would the acquisition of over $100 million dollars of taxpayers money, to expand a museum to house a collection of non-disclosed reproductions and fakes misrepresented as sculptures, “cause injury or loss to {persons} by deceit?”
On page 180 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue there two “Nude Study of Balzac (Type C)” listed. The one listed below was in a prior Cantor Foundation exhibition checklist before its’ exhibition in the NCOMA venue:
On the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s www.cantorfoundation. org/About/about3.html website, it states: “The main thrust of the Cantor Foundation's support focuses on the art of Auguste Rodin and women's health issues. The Foundation's efforts are concentrated primarily in California and New York.”
REQUIRES DISCLOSURE OF REPRODUCTIONS AS REPRODUCTIONS
In the State of New York, under the New York Civil Code 15.01 2 states: “Article fifteen of the New York arts and cultural affairs law provides for disclosure in writing of certain information - sculpture when sold for more than fifteen hundred dollars, prior to effecting a sale of them. This law requires disclosure of such matters as the identity of the artist, the artist's signature, the medium, whether the multiple is a reproduction.”
SIGNED MEANS AUTOGRAPHED BY THE ARTIST’S OWN HAND
In the State of New York, under the New York Civil Code 15.03 2 states: “Signature. If the artist's name appears on the multiple, state whether the multiple was signed by the artist. If not signed by the artist then state the source of the artist's name on the multiple, such as whether the artist placed his signature on the master, whether his name was stamped or estate stamped on the multiple, or was from some other source or in some other manner placed on the multiple.”
DISCLOSURE REQUIRED IF POSTHUMOUS
In the State of New York, under the New York Civil Code 15.03 4 states: “Use of master. (a) If the multiple is a "posthumous" multiple, that is, if the master was created during the life of the artist but the multiple was produced after the artist's death, this shall be stated.
(b) If the multiple was made from a master which produced a prior limited edition, or from a master which constitutes or was made from a reproduction of a prior multiple or of a master which produced prior multiples, this shall be stated.”
Remember, the “Nude Study of Balzac (Type C)” is listed, by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation in their catalogue, as “signed A. Rodin” and “cast in 1972.”
So, aside New York Civil Code requirements for disclosure of reproductions as “reproductions,” much less as “posthumous,” how was this non-disclosed posthumous reproduction “signed” by Auguste Rodin fifty-five years after his death in 1972?
12. CONNOISSEURSHIP
Independently documenting the definitions of key terms is an effective way to truly document the facts behind the misrepresentation of “reproductions” as “visual works of art” ie., sculptures.
WHAT IS CONNOISSEURSHIP?
In Paul Duro & Michael Greenhalgh’s published Essential Art History, “connoisseurship” is defined as: “that of the art expert able to distinguish between the authentic and non-authentic, for example between an original and a copy.”
IRIS AND B. GERALD CANTOR FOUNDATION’S “MISSION STATEMENT”
On the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s www.cantor foundation.org/About/about3.html website, their “Mission Statement,” in part, states that they are: “a private operating foundation established in 1978 to promote and encourage recognition and appreciation of excellence in the arts- {and the} main thrust of the Cantor Foundation's support focuses on the art of Auguste Rodin -.”
Additionally, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation claims on their www.cantorfoundation.org website that the “Foundation places great emphasis on Rodin scholarship.”
WHAT IS SCHOLARSHIP?
On Bartleby.com, -scholarship- is defined as: “knowledge resulting from study and research in a particular field.”
Let’s compare independently documented definitions of key basic art terms to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s definitions, published on their website under the heading “Glossary of Terms,” to determine their connoisseurship and scholarship.
WHAT IS A SCULPTURE?
On page 372 in Ralph Mayer’s HarperCollins Dictionary of Art Terms & Techniques, -sculpture- is defined as: “the creation of three dimensional forms by carving, modeling or assembly. In carving, the sculptor removes unwanted material.... In modeling on the other hand, the sculptor creates a form by building it up...”
WHAT IS A SCULPTOR?
This is answered in the J. Paul Getty Trust’s www.getty.edu website. Under their Getty Vocabulary Program, -sculptor- is defined as: “artists who specialize in creating images and forms that are carried out primarily in three dimensions, generally in the media of stone, wood, or metal.”
CANTOR FOUNDATION’S DEFINITION OF SCULPTURE
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation on their www.cantorfoundation.org/ Education/guide5.html website, under their "Glossary of Terms,” define -sculpture- as: “the art or practice of creating three-dimensional forms or figures.”
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, on their www.cantorfoundation.org/Education/guide5.html website under “Glossary of Terms,” does not have definition listed for -sculptor-. Why does the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation not mention in anyway the physical participation of the sculptor in its’ definition of -sculpture-?
U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW - WORK OF VISUAL ART
Under U.S. Copyright Law 101. Definitions, a “work of visual art” ie., -sculpture- is defined as: “multiple cast, carved, or fabricated sculptures of 200 or fewer that are consecutively numbered by the author and bear the signature or other identifying mark of the author.”
U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW - RIGHTS OF ATTRIBUTION
Additionally, as noted earlier, under U.S. Copyright Law 106A. Rights of Attribution - “shall not apply to any reproduction.”
WHAT IS A REPRODUCTION?
On page 350 in Ralph Mayer’s HarperCollins Dictionary of Art Terms & Techniques, -reproduction- is defined as: “a general term for any copy, likeness, or counterpart of an original work of art or of a photograph, done in the same medium as the original or in another, and done by someone other than the creator of the original.”
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, on their www.cantorfoundation. org/Education/guide5.html website under “Glossary of Terms,” does not have definition listed for -reproduction-.
Since Auguste Rodin died in 1917, obviously anything posthumously reproduced would be, at best by definition and under U.S. Copyright Law, a -reproduction-.
WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF CAST?
On page 70 of Ralph Mayer’s 1999 The HarperCollins Dictionary of Art Terms & Techniques -cast- is defined as: “to reproduce an object, such as a piece of sculpture, by means of a MOLD.”
CANTOR FOUNDATION’S DEFINITION OF CAST
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation on their www.cantorfoundation.org/ Education/guide5.html website, under “Glossary of Terms,” define -cast- as: “a sculpture produced with a mold.”
Yet, on the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s www.cantorfoundation.org/ Rodin/Bronze/casting1.html website, it states: “after closing the mold around the clay model, wax is poured into the space between the model and the mold. This stage is crucial in producing a perfect reproduction of the initial sculpture.”
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation impeaches its’ own scholarship when it first makes the -representation- that their “sculptures {are} produced with a mold” then makes the -disclosure- that their so-called “sculptures” are actually “perfect reproduction{s} of the initial sculpture {using a mold},” as if sculpture and reproduction are interchangeable.
For anyone to make a representation, that objects in their collection or exhibit, are -sculptures- then at the end make the disclosure that they were -cast- ie., reproduced, as if these concepts were interchangeable, would be a -non-sequitur-.
WHAT IS A NON-SEQUITUR?
On page 1080 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -non-sequitur- is defined as: “an inference or conclusion that does not logically follow from the premises.”
In other words, by definition and under U.S. Copyright Law, you cannot call a reproduction a visual work of art ie., sculpture, much less attribute that reproduction to that artist whether they are alive or dead. Without full and honest disclosure to reproductions as reproductions by all museums, how can the consumer give informed consent before they chose to attend an exhibit whether they pay admission or not?
WHAT IS MEANT BY REPRESENTATION?
On page 1303 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -representation- is defined as: “a presentation of fact - either by words or by conduct - made to induce someone to act, esp to enter into a contract.”
NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART’S REPRESENTATION
On November 9, 2005 the University of North Carolina Public Radio’s Host David Crabtree interviewed{29} North Carolina Museum of Art curator David Steel concerning the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation gift of “important works by Auguste Rodin to the museum’s collection.” In that interview David Steel stated: “There is going to be twenty-two sculptures by Rodin and actually one other sculpture by his mistress Camille Claudel who did a bust of Rodin. So, I was very eager to get that for the museum as well. The works that are coming are range in size from over life size to small. They cover the whole of Rodin’s career.”
WHAT IS A CONTRACT?
On page 381 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -contract- is defined as: “an agreement between two or more parties creating obligations that are enforceable or otherwise recognizable at law.”
NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART’S {CONTRACT}
In that same UNC radio interview, North Carolina Museum of Art’s curator David Steel stated: “as a state museum our obligation is to education the children and the adults of the state.”
Specifically on the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources website it states: “our mission is to enrich the cultural, educational, and economic well-being of North Carolina's citizens and visitors. We do this by working to enhance the availability and quality of our state's historic, library, and artistic resources.”{30}
WHAT IS MEANT BY DISCLOSURE?
On page 476 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -disclosure- is defined as: “the act or process of making known something that was previously unknown.”
NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART’S DISCLOSURE
The state-run North Carolina Museum of Art’s disclosure, for this “$25 million gift of Rodin sculptures” from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, did not in the UNC’s North Carolina Public Radio’s November 8, 2005 interview with the North Carolina Museum of Art’s curator David Steel or in the State of North Carolina Office of Governor’s November 9, 2005 release once referred to any object in this “Gift” as being cast, reproduced, posthumous or as a reproduction despite the twenty-three so-called “sculptures” being at least reproductions, much less forgeries.
Without full and honest disclosure to these contentious issues of authenticity by the state-run North Carolina Museum of Art, how can the legislature, much less the state’s governor, give informed consent before they chose to fund a $100 museum expansion of the North Carolina Museum of Art to house these non-disclosed reproductions, much less the posthumous fakes?
WHAT IS (INFORMED) CONSENT?
On page 300 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -consent- is defined as an: “agreement, approval or permission as to some act or purpose, esp. given voluntarily by a competent person.”
WHAT IS FRAUD?
On page 670 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -fraud- is defined as: “a knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment.”
So, would a museum’s misrepresentation of posthumous second-generation removed fakes, much less reproductions, as “sculptures,” for monetary considerations, be committing “a knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment?”
13. ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
On the North Carolina Museum of Art’s www.ncartmuseum.org website, under the title “SUPPORT THE MUSEUM,” the museum’s director Larry Wheeler writes: “Did you know the Museum must raise $8 million annually to support programs, services and operations for this unique statewide public museum? In order to help the Museum fulfill its mission, we invite (and rely on) the support of friends and members across North Carolina and beyond. Your financial gift is critical because it provides access for thousands of schoolchildren who are able to see and explore our world-class collection of art. In addition, we bring the world closer to you by presenting special exhibitions and public programming that enhances your Museum experience.”
Despite the rhetoric, the North Carolina Museum of Art is misrepresenting non-disclosed reproductions and second-generation-removed -fakes-, as “sculpture.”{31}
Is that an acceptable “mission” for “thousands of schoolchildren?”
That question is addressed by the University of North Carolina’s integrity.unc.edu/faq.html website, under the title: “Academic Integrity in teaching and learning.” In part, it states: “the Honor Code discusses 'academic dishonesty' in the following terms: It shall be the responsibility of every student enrolled at the University of North Carolina to support the principles of academic integrity and to refrain from all forms of academic dishonesty, including but not limited to, the following: I. Plagiarism in the form of deliberate or reckless representation of another’s words, thoughts, or ideas as one’s own without attribution in connection with submission of academic work, whether graded or otherwise., II. Falsification, fabrication, or misrepresentation of data, other information, or citations in connection with an academic assignment, whether graded or otherwise.”
The University of North Carolina’s penalties for violations of “The Honor Code,” in part, states: “in instances of academic dishonesty, students generally receive a grade penalty (an F on the assignment, course component or aspect, or course); and either suspension or probation, often with additional educational requirements (perhaps writing a paper, taking another course, participating in a program offered by the Writing Center, or something of that sort).”
In other words, should the North Carolina Museum of Art, a cultural institution, be held to a lesser ethical standard than any student, much less University of North Carolina students?
14. CONCLUSION
What needs to be accomplished is the full and honest disclosure of all reproductions as -reproductions- by all museums, auction houses and art dealers. If the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation and the North Carolina Museum of Art will give full and honest disclosure for all reproductions as: -reproductions- it would allow museum patrons to give informed consent on whether they wish to attend an exhibit of reproductions, much less pay the price of admission
But if these objects are not reproductions by definition, direct copies of the artist’s original artwork, but second-generation-removed (or more) -fakes- with or without posthumously forged counterfeit signatures, then serious consequences of law may come into play for those who chose to misrepresent these -fakes- for profit.
The reputations and legacy of living and past artists, present and future museum art patrons and the art-buying public deserve the re-establishment of the obvious; that the living presence and participation of the artist to once again be required, as it always should have been, to create the piece of art attributable to the artist if indeed it is attributed to them, much less purported to have been signed by them.
PRINCIPALS:
Lawrence J. Wheeler, Ph.D.
Director
North Carolina Museum of Art
2110 Blue Ridge Road
Raleigh, NC 27607-6494
lwheeler@ncmamaildcr.state.nc.us
(919) 839-6262
Judith Sobol
Director
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1801 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 435
Los Angeles, CA 90067
jsobol@ibgcf.org
(310) 277-4600
FOOTNOTES:
1. www,governor.state.nc.us/News_FullStory.asp?id_2581
2. On page 617 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -fake- is defined as: “Something that is not what it purports to be.”
3. www,governor.state.nc.us/News_FullStory.asp?id_2581
4. On page 670 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -fraud- is defined as: “A knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment.”
5. www,governor.state.nc.us/News_FullStory.asp?id_2581
6) page 356, “Camille Claudel - Laughing Man - cast by Alexis Rudier 1925.” 2005 Camille Claudel and Rodin: Fateful Encounter catalogue ISBN 2 7541 0001 6
7) On page 285 in the former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent’s “Observations on Rodin and His Founders” essay, published in the National Gallery of Art’s published 1981 Rodin Rediscovered catalogue.
8) HOW TO FIND THE ABOVE MUSEE RODIN QUOTE:
First, go to the www.musee-rodin.fr/welcome.htm website,
then under “Contents on the left column click on “Collections,”
once on new screen click on the “Meudon” button,
then scoll down new screen till you reach the photograph of
“Assemblage of two figures of Even and crouching women”
and then count fourteen lines down for the quote.
9) On page 249 of the 1981 Rodin Rediscovered, -sculpteur reproducteur- applied to Henri Lebosse is written about in Albert Elsen’s “Rodin’s ‘Perfect Collaborator,’ Henri Lebosse” essay.
10) www,governor.state.nc.us/News_FullStory.asp?id_2581
11) page 54, Rodin’s Monument to Victor Hugo by Ruth Butler, Jeanine Parisier Plottel and Jane Mayo Roos ISBN 1 85894 070 2
12) page 90-91, Rodin, The Cantor Gift to The Brooklyn Museum by Lynne Ambrosini and Michelle Facos ISBN 0-87372-111-1
13) Copyright © 1988 by Ste Nlle des Editions du Chene ISBN 0-8050-1252-4
14) 1976 Sculpture of Auguste Rodin by John Tancock, ISBN 0-87923-157-2
15) Hard copy of this telephone conversation was OVERNIGHTED by U.S. Postal Service (Tracking No. EE43307188US) on September 23, 1999 to Ruth Butler 41 Holden Street Cambridge, MA 02138-2038
16) © Editions Flammartion, Paris-Musee Rodin 2004 ISBN (Editions Flammarion): 2-0803-0445-3
17) Copyright © 1993 by Ruth Butler, ISBN 0-300-05400-0
18) © 1985 by Albert E. Elsen ISBN 0-8047-1273-5, Published with the assistance of the Cantor Fitzgerald Foundation
19) In a April 2, 2004 Buffalo News “Letter to Editor” posted on their www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20040402/ 1020607.asp website the Albright_Knox Art Gallery’s Curator of Modern Art Kenneth Wayne, in part, wrote “All works in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation Collection are unquestionably original Rodins, cast in bronze from the artist’s sculpted clay and plaster models. The bronze casts on view were created either during Rodin’s lifetime by his own hired craftsmen, or after his death.”
In a Globe and Mail’s published June 24, 2005 “Rodin’s cast of hundreds” article by Danelle Egan, Vancouver Art Gallery curator Ian Thom did admit that “the hand of Rodin did not touch these sculptures.” However, he added, “that’s not unusual because 19th-century sculptors hired technicians to finish the sculptures.”
20) On page 281, Jean Chatelain’s “Original in Sculpture,” 1981 Rodin Rediscovered ISBN 0-89468-001-3 (pbk)
21) -Avarice- is defined, on page 22 in the Webster’s New World Pocket Dictionary, as: “greed for money.”
22) www.cantorfoundation.org/PDFfiles/Rodin101.pdf
23) On page 281, Jean Chatelain’s “Original in Sculpture,” 1981 Rodin Rediscovered ISBN 0-89468-001-3 (pbk)
24) “NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART RECEIVES UNPRECEDENTED RODIN GIFT FROM THE IRIS AND B. GERALD CANTOR FOUNDATION”
www.ncartmuseum.org/pressroom/pressreleases/General%20Releases/Rodin%20gift.shtml
25) www.newsobserver.com/167/story/365653.html On November 9, 2005 the Raleigh, North Carolina located Newsobserver newspaper published the “Museum plans major Rodin center” article by Staff Writer Craig Jarvis (829-4576 or cjarvis@newsobserver.com). In part, the staff writer wrote: “Museum director Larry Wheeler estimates the value of the gift at $25 million. It is the largest present of art to the museum since it received 75 works from a foundation four years after it opened in 1956.”
26) www.ncartmuseum.org/pressroom/pressreleases/General%20Releases/Rodin%20gift.shtml
27) In Paul Duro & Michael Greenhalgh’s published Essential Art History, “connoisseurship” is defined as: “that of the art expert able to distinguish between the authentic and non-authentic, for example between an original and a copy.” rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/teach/eah/ImageServe
28) pages 175-190, RODIN, A Magnificent Obsession, ISBN 1 85894 143 1 hardback
29) www.ibiblio.org/wunc_archives/sot/index.php?m=200511
30) www.ncdcr.gov/musofartimages.asp
North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
109 East Jones Street || MSC 4601
Raleigh, NC 27699-4601
Phone: (919) 807-7385
Fax: (919) 733-1620
E-mail our Information and Marketing Services Department
fay.henderson@ncmail.net
31) www,governor.state.nc.us/News_FullStory.asp?id_2581
WEBSITE:
www.garyarseneau.blogspot.com
ADDENDUM
1. On page 176 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Ugolino and Sons” is listed as follows:
“Ugolino and Sons
c. 1881-82, date of cast unknown
Bronze
No foundry mark
16 1/8 x 16 7/8 x 19 7/8 in.
(41 x 42.9 x 50.5 cm)
Signed A. Rodin and inscribed 2eme epreuve.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1550”
2. On page 182 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “Call to Arms” is listed as follows:
“Call to Arms
1879, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Alexis Rudier
44 1/2 x 22 1/2 x 15 in.
(113 x 57.2 x 38.1 cm)
Signed A. Rodin and inscribed Alexis RUDIER FONDEUR PARIS
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1546”
3. On page 177 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “I am Beautiful” is listed as follows:
“I am Beautiful
Before 1886, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Alexis Rudier
27 3/4 x 12 x 12 in.
(70.5 x 30.5 x 31.7 cm)
Signed and stamped inside with raised signature A. Rodin and inscribed Alexis Rudier Fondeur Paris and the following quotation from Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal: Je suis belle o mortels, comme un reve de pierre Et mon sein ou chacun s’est meurtri tour a tour Est fait pour inspirer au poete un amour Eternel et muet ainsi que la matiere
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1714”
4. On page 177 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Fugitive Love” is listed as follows:
“Fugitive Love
Before 1887, cast 2, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Alexis Rudier
20 3/4 x 33 x 15 in.
(52.7 x 83.8 x 38.1 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No. 2 and inscribed Alexis Rudier/ Fondeur PARIS
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1305”
5. On page 175 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “The Thinker” is listed as follows:
“The Thinker
1880, reduced in 1903, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Alexis Rudier
14 3/4 x 7 7/8 x 11 3/8 in.
(37.5 x 20 x 28.9 cm)
Signed A. Rodin and inscribed Alexis Rudier, Fondeur, Paris.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1499”
6. On page 176 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “The Kiss” is listed as follows:
“The Kiss
c. 1881-82, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Alexis Rudier
34 x 17 x 22 in.
(80.4 x 43.2 x55.9 cm)
Signed A. Rodin and inscribed Alexis RUDIER Fondeur, PARIS with raised signature A. Rodin inside.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1689”
NOTES:
“The Kiss” is listed in a prior“Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession, Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation” exhibition checklist (Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s “Dayton Art Institute, Working Checklist, May 7, 1998”) as: “Original plaster version executed in 1886; this bronze cast at a later date - Foundry: Alexis Rudier.”
LEBLANC-BARBEDIENNE CAST THE KISS TILL 1919
The Alexis Rudier foundry was in business from 1902 to 1952 (page 290 in former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent’s RODIN AND HIS FOUNDERS essay published in the National Gallery of Art’s 1981 Rodin Rediscovered exhibition catalogue.) some sixteen years after the listed date of “1886.” But it doesn’t end there. The Leblanc-Barbedienne foundry owned the contract for reproducing The Kiss, in bronze, till 1919 (page 289 in former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent’s RODIN AND HIS FOUNDERS essay published in the National Gallery of Art’s 1981 Rodin Rediscovered exhibition catalogue). The author writes: “Leblanc-Barbedienne thus owned exclusive rights to the working of reductions for the Eternal Spring and of The Kiss except for the original size which the sculptor reserved for himself, but with the obligation to reserve the casting for the same firm.” ).
ALEXIS RUDIER FOUNDRY AFTER 1919
Therefore, the earliest the Alexis Rudier foundry could have legally reproduced “The Kiss,” in bronze, would have been in 1919 some two years or more after Auguste Rodin’s death in 1917. That is almost thirty-three odd years after the overtly misleading “1886” date listed for “The Kiss” by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.
7.On page 188 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “The Catherdral” is listed as follows:
“The Cathedral
Original stone version executed in 1908 Musee Rodin cast in 1955
Bronze
Georges Rudier
25 1/4 x 12 3/4 x 13 1/2 in.
(64.1 x 32.3 x 34.3 cm)
Inscribed Georges Rudier, Fondeur, Paris © Musee Rodin 1955 and signed A. Rodin inside.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
15600”
8. On page 186 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “Flying Figure” is listed as follows:
“Flying Figure
c. 1890-91, date of cast unknown {“Cast 12” 2000 Cantor Foundation’s Dayton Art Institute} Checklist”
Bronze
Georges Rudier
20 1/2 x 29 1/2 x 12 in.
(52.1 x 74.9 x 30.5 cm)
Signed A. Rodin and inscribed Georges Rudier Fondeur Paris © By Musee Rodin.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1302”
NOTE: As referenced earlier by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, the State of France mandated in 1957 (“1956” listed by IBGCF) the edition limitation of twelve. This is confirmed on page 281 by Jean Chatelain in his “An Original in Sculpture” essay published in the 1981 Rodin Rediscovered catalogue. In part, the author writes: “castings of sculptures in a series limited to eight copies - General Code of Taxes, Appendix iii, Article 17.”
Therefore, since the “Flying Figure” was cast by the Georges Rudier foundry and in a numbered edition of “Cast 12,” it would have to been reproduced sometime after 1957, instead of the misleading date of “c. 1890-91, date of cast unknown” given by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.
9. On page 179 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Monumental Head of Pierre de Wiessant” is listed as follows:
“Monumental Head of Pierre de Wiessant
c. 1884-85, enlarged about 1909, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Godard
32 x 19 x 20 1/2 in.
(81.3 x 48.3 x 52.1 cm)
Signed and inscribed A. Rodin and Godard-Fondeur, Paris
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
775”
NOTE: “Monumental Head of Pierre de Wiessant,” with “CC ID# 775” identification number, is listed in a prior Nevada Museum of Art’s Rodin Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation checklist as being “cast” by the “Godard” foundry.
GODARD FOUNDRY
The former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent documents on page 293 in her “Rodin and His Founders” essay, published in the 1981 Rodin Rediscovered catalogue, that the “{E.} Godard” foundry began working with the Musee Rodin in “1969,” some fifty-two years after Auguste Rodin died in 1917.
E. GODARD FOUNDRY DIRECTOR
This further confirmed by the E. Godard foundry director L. de Cristofaro in a February 8, 2005 correspondence from France to this author that their foundry “fontes postumes” ie. posthumously cast “Rodin{s}.”
10. On page 177 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue there are two “Danaid” listed. They are listed as follows:
(a) “Danaid
1885-89, Musee Rodin cast 5/12 in 1969
Bronze
Georges Rudier
12 3/4 x 28 3/4 x 22 1/2 in.
(32.4 x 73 x 57.2 cm)
Inscribed © Musee Rodin 1969 and Georges Rudier Fondeur Paris.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection, promised gift to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
11700”
(b) “Danaid
1885-89, Musee Rodin cast 8 in 1979
Bronze
Godard
12 3/4 x 28 3/4 x 22 1/2 in.
(32.4 x 73 x 57.2 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No. 8 and inscribed E. GODARD Fondr and © BY MUSEE RODIN 1979.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1600”
11. On page 180 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue there two “Nude Study of Balzac (Type C)” listed. The one listed below was in a prior Cantor Foundation exhibition checklist before its’ exhibition in the NCOMA venue:
“Nude Study of Balzac (Reduction, Type “C”)
Probably 1892, Musee Rodin cast 11/12 in 1972
Bronze
Georges Rudier
30 x 16 3/4 x 13 1/2 in.
(76.2 x 42.5 x 34.3 cm)
Signed A Rodin and inscribed © Musee Rodin 1972 and Georges Rudier, Fondeur, Paris.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
16800”
12. On page 181 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose” is listed as follows:
“Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose
1863-64, Musee Rodin cast 3/12 probably in the 1970’s
Bronze
Coubertin
12 1/2 x 7 1/4 x 6 in.
(31.8 x 18.4 x 15.2 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No. 3 with Coubertin foundry mark.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1605”
13. On page 184 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “St. John the Baptist Preaching” is listed as follows:
“St. John the Baptist Preaching
c. 1880, Musee Rodin cast in 1974
Bronze
Georges Rudier
19 3/4 x 11 x 9 1/8 in.
(50.2 x 27.9 x 23.2 cm)
Signed A. Rodin No. 2 and inscribed Georges Rudier.fondeur.Paris. and © by Musee Rodin 1974
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1601”
14. On page 178 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Jean d’Aire, Nude” is listed as follows:
“Jean d’Aire, Nude
c. 1884-86, Musee Rodin cast 4 in 1976
Bronze
Georges Rudier
41 3/4 x 13 3/4 x 11 7/8 in.
(106.1 x 34.9 x 30.2 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin/ No. 4 and inscribed Georges Rudier/Fondeur/Paris.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1554”
15. On page 187 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “The Prayer” is listed as follows:
“The Prayer
1910, Musee Rodin cast 5 in 1979
Bronze
Godard
49 1/2 x 21 5/8 x 19 5/8 in.
(125.7 x 54.9 x 49.8 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin/No 5 and inscribed E. GODARD/ Fondr and © By MUSEE Rodin 1979.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1553”
16. On page 176 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the enlarged “Fallen Caryatid With Stone is listed as follows:
“Fallen Caryatid with Stone
1880-81, enlarged 1911-17, Musee Rodin cast II/IV in 1988
Bronze
Coubertin
52 1/2 x 33 x 39 in.
(133.4 x 83.8 x 99.1 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No. II?IV and inscribed © By Musee Rodin 1988 with Coubertin foundry mark.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1563”
17. On page 179 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Jean de Fiennes, Vetu” is listed as follows:
“Jean de Fiennes, Vetu
1885-86, Musee Rodin cast 5/8 in 1983
Bronze
Coubertin
82 x 48 x 38 in.
(208.3 x 121.9 x 96.5 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin and No. 5/8 and inscribed © By Musee Rodin 1983 with Coubertin foundry mark.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1330”
18. On page 190 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “Sorrow” is listed as follows:
“Sorrow
1889, Musee Rodin cast III/IV in 1983
Bronze
Coubertin
11 1/2 x 6 1/2 x 6 3/4 in.
(29.2 x 16.5 x 17.1 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No III/IV and inscribed © By Musee Rodin 1983 and LA PORTE DE L’ENFER 1977-1981 DON DE B. GERALD CANTOR.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1356”
19. On page 176 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue there are two 75 1/2 inch high “The Three Shades” listed. They are listed as follows:
(a) “The Three Shades
1880-1904, single figure conceived about 1880, enlarged individually in 1904, group composition by 1904. Musee Rodin cast 3/8 in 1983.
Bronze
Coubertin
75 1/2 x 75 1/2 x 42 in.
(191.8 x 191.8 x 106.7 cm)
Signed A. Rodin with Coubertin foundry mark and inscribed © By Musee Rodin 1983.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection, promised gift to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1343”
(b) “The Three Shades
1880-1904, single figure conceived about 1880, enlarged individually in 1901, group composition by 1904. Musee Rodin cast II/IV in 1991.
Bronze
Coubertin
75 1/2 x 75 1/2 x 42 in.
(191.8 x 191.8 x 106.7 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin/No. II/IV and inscribed © By MUSEE RODIN 1991 with the Coubertin foundry mark.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection Foundation
1628”
20. On page 186 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Monumental Torso of the Walking Man” is listed as follows:
“Monumental Torso of the Walking Man
c. 1905, Musee Rodin cast 4/8 in 1985
Bronze
Godard
43 1/3 x 26 3/4 x 15 in.
(110.1 x 67.9 x 38.1 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No. 4/8 and inscribed E. GODARD Fondr and © BY MUSEE Rodin 1985
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1410”
21. On page 186 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue there two “Cybele{s}” is listed as follows:
(a) “Cybele
c. 1890, enlarged in 1904, Musee Rodin cast 3/8 in 1982
Bronze
Coubertin
64 x 34 x 56 in.
(165.1 x 86.4 x 142.2 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No 3/8 with Coubertin foundry mark and © by Musee Rodin 1982.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection, promised gift to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1189”
(b) “Cybele
c. 1890, enlarged in 1904, Musee Rodin cast 7/8 in 1987
Bronze
Coubertin
64 x 34 x 56 in.
(165.1 x 86.4 x 142.2 cm)
Signed A. Rodin with Coubertin foundry mark and inscribed © by Musee Rodin 1987.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1473”
22. On page 178 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “Toilette of Venus and Andromede” is listed as follows:
“Toilette of Venus and Andromede
No date, Musee Rodin cast II/IV in 1987
Bronze
Godard
20 x 14 1/2 x 23 1/2 in.
(50.8 x 36.8 x 59.7 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No. II/IV and inscribed E. Godard Fondeur and © By musee Rodin 1987.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1510”
23. On page 190 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Bust of Rodin” and “Ten-step Lost-wax Casting Process” are listed as follows:
“CLAUDEL, CAMILLE (French, 1864-1942)
Bust of Rodin
1882-92, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Alexis Rudier
15 3/4 x 9 1/4 x 11 in.
(40 x 23.5 x 28 cm)
Signed Camille Claudel
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
593”
24. “Ten-step Lost-wax Casting Process of Rodin’s Sorrow
1987
Plaster, clay, wax, ceramic and bronze
Coubertin
10 pieces, approx. 15 x 10 x 8 in. each
(10 pieces, 38.1 x 25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection, promised gift to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1436”
NOTE: All footnotes are enclosed with { }.
All the so-called “22 bronze sculptures by French sculptor Auguste Rodin {and} sculpture of Rodin by Camille Claudel,”{1} officially donated on November 9, 2005 by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation to the state-run North Carolina Museum of Art, are "something that is not what it purports to be"{2} which is one legal definition of -fake-.
Seventeen of those non-disclosed fakes, attributed as Auguste Rodin sculptures, were actually posthumously forged between 1919 and 1987 with counterfeit “A. Rodin” signatures posthumously applied.
Auguste Rodin died in 1917.
The dead don't sculpt, much less sign anything.
The eighteenth fake, attributed as a sculpture by Camille Claudel, is a forgery forged in bronze after she was interned to an insane asylum in 1913.
Additionally, when non-disclosed reproductions and posthumous fakes are misrepresented as sculptures by a cultural institution ie., museum such as the North Carolina Museum of Art and its’ principals for monetary considerations, such as $25 million dollars{3}, then “a knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment”{4} may come into play which is one legal definition of -fraud-.
This monograph documents the true chronology of these twenty-three non-disclosed reproductions and/or fakes, the violation of Auguste Rodin’s 1916 Will that gave to the State of France the “reproduction rights of the objects given by him” and other serious contentious issues of authenticity surrounding the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s so-called “$25 million gift of Rodin sculptures {to} the North Carolina Museum of Art.”{5}
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
BRIEF SUMMARY - WHY ARE THESE 17 RODINS FAKE?
TRUE CHRONOLOGY
1. NOT FROM RODIN’S ORIGINAL PLASTERS
2. COUNTERFEIT SIGNATURES
3. EDITIONS NOT LIMITED TO TWELVE
4. CANTOR FOUNDATION -PICKS- THE COLOR
5. LIFE-CAST FALSELY ATTRIBUTED TO RODIN
6. MUSEE RODIN GIVEN REPRODUCTION RIGHTS
7. CORRUPT MUSEE RODIN
8. AMERICA IS NOT A FRENCH PROVINCE
9. CANTOR FOUNDATION’S AVARICE
10. 25 MILLION REASONS TO DEFRAUD
11. NEW YORK CIVIL CODES
12. CONNOISSEURSHIP
13. ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
14. CONCLUSION
PRINCIPALS
FOOTNOTES
WEBSITE
ADDENDUM
BRIEF SUMMARY - WHY ARE THESE 17 -RODINS- FAKE?
1. NOT FROM RODIN’S ORIGINAL PLASTERS
The Musee Rodin admits they do not reproduce from
Rodin’s original plaster but plaster reproductions, making
them second-generation-removed -fakes-.
2. COUNTERFEIT SIGNATURES
The Musee Rodin posthumously forges counterfeit
“A Rodin” or “Rodin” signatures to these second-
generation-removed -fakes-.
3. EDITIONS NOT LIMITED TO TWELVE
The Musee Rodin doesn’t always limit their editions
to twelve as mandated by French decrees.
4. CANTOR FOUNDATION -PICKS- THE COLOR
The Musee Rodin allows wealthy benefactors such as
the Cantors to picked the color {patina} of a bronze that
they in turn promote as an original Auguste Rodin.
5. LIFE-CAST FALSELY ATTRIBUTED TO RODIN
The Musee Rodin violates Auguste Rodin’s legacy by
attributing to him a life-cast of his hand posthumously
altered. The very thing he denied doing, -casting from life-,
is falsely attributed to him as if it makes -no- difference.
TRUE CHRONOLOGY
NOTE: The titles and dates listed below are from the News Observer newspaper’s published November 13, 2005 “Tour of Collection” article concerning the donation to the North Carolina Museum of Art by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation of “twenty-two Rodins and a Camille Claudel” along with “a display of the lost-wax casting process.” The link for that article is: www.newsobserver.com/105/story/366127.html
Additionally, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s numbering system “CCID #” is noted directly from their “Working Checklists” or published catalogues. See ADDENDUM at the end of this Press Release for additional documentation on the objects listed below
1881-82
1. “UGOLINO AND SONS, modeled 1881-82,” (Foundry: unknown), CCID #1550
1902 to 1952
2. “CALL TO ARMS, modeled 1879,” (Alexis Rudier foundry between 1902 to 1952), CCID #1546
3. “I AM BEAUTIFUL, modeled before 1886,” (Alexis Rudier foundry between 1902 to 1952), CCID #1714
4. “FUGITIVE LOVE, modeled before 1887,” Alexis Rudier foundry between 1902 to 1952), CCID #1305
5. “THE THINKER, modeled 1880, reduced in 1903, (Alexis Rudier foundry between 1902 to 1952), CCID #1499
Auguste Rodin died in 1917
1919-1952
6. “THE KISS, modeled 1881-82,” (Alexis Rudier foundry between 1919 to 1952), CCID #1689
1950’s
7. “THE CATHEDRAL, modeled 1908,” (George Rudier foundry in 1955), CCID #1386
8. “FLYING FIGURE, modeled 1890-91,” (George Rudier after 1957), CCID #1302
1960’s
9. “MONUMENTAL HEAD OF PIERRE DE WIESSANT, modeled about 1884-85, enlarged about 1909,” (Godard foundry after 1969), CCID #775
10. “DANAID, modeled 1885-89” (Georges Rudier foundry in 1969 or by Godard foundry in 1979), CCID #11700 or CCID #1600
1970’s
11. “NUDY STUDY OF BALZAC (TYPE‘C’), modeled about 1892, reduction date unknown”
(Georges Rudier foundry in 1972), CCID #16800
12. “MASK OF THE MAN WITH THE BROKEN NOSE , modeled 1863-64” (Coubertin foundry after 1973), CCID #1605
13. “ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST PREACHING, “about 1880, cast in 1974” (Georges Rudier foundry ), CCID #1601
14. “JEAN D’AIRE, NUDE , modeled 1885-86,” (Georges Rudier foundry in 1974), CCID #1554
15. “THE PRAYER, modeled 1910,” (Godard foundry in 1979), CCID #1553
1980’s
16. “FALLEN CARYATID WITH STONE, modeled 1880-81,” (Coubertin foundry in 1982), CCID #1563
17. “JEAN DE FIENNES, VETU, modeled 1885-86,,” (Coubertin foundry in 1983), CCID #1330
18. “SORROW, modeled 1889,” (Coubertin foundry in 1983), CCID #1356
19. “THE THREE SHADES, 1880-1904,” (Coubertin foundry in 1983 or 1991), CCID #1343 or CCID #1628
20. “MONUMENTAL TORSO OF THE WALKING MAN, modeled about 1905,” (Godard foundry in 1985), CCID #1410
21. “CYBELE, about 1890, enlarged 1904,” (Coubertin foundry 1982 or 1987, CCID #1189 or CCID #1473
22. “TOILETTE OF VENUS AND ANDROMEDE, date modeled unknown,” (Godard foundry in 1987), CCID #1510
Camille Claudel interned in 1913, died in 1943.
23. “BUST OF RODIN , 1888-92, date of cast unknown,” (Alexis Rudier foundry after 1913), CCID #593
NOTE: On page 190 in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin, A Magnificent Obsession catalogue, the so-called Camille Claudel “Bust of Rodin” is listed with a “1888-92, date of cast unknown” date and the “Alexis Rudier” foundry.
The Alexis Rudier foundry went into business in 1902 till 1952, some ten years after the listed date of "1881-92" for this so-called Camille Claudel "Bust of Rodin."
The Alexis Rudier foundry is documented to have reproduced Camille Claudel’s work after her internment in 1913{6}. The documented foundries to cast the Camille Claudel’s “Bust of Rodin,” before her 1913 internment, was Adolphe Gruet and Francois Rudier.
“Consequently, whenever it is decided to release a new ‘subject,’ a copy is first made from the old mould which can be sent without risk to the foundry where it undergoes the necessary preparations for casting. It is coated with an unmoulding agent, usually in a dark colour, and cut, before being cast again. This practice not only ensures absolute fidelity to the original but also preserves the old plasters which are obviously more valuable since they were made during the lifetime of Rodin.”
Musee Rodin curator Antoinette Le Normaid-Romain on the www.musee-rodin.fr website
1. NOT FROM RODIN’S ORIGINAL PLASTERS
In violation of Auguste Rodin’s 1916 Will, which gave upon his death the State of France the “right of reproduction to objects given by him,”{7} the Musee Rodin admits on their www.musee-rodin.fr{8} website that they do not send Auguste Rodin’s original plasters to the foundry for casting in bronze but instead they send posthumously reproduced plaster reproductions. Auguste Rodin’s 1916 Will is further expounded upon in Section 6 of this News Release.
A -reproduction-, by definition, is a copy of an original work of art done by someone other than the artist.
Therefore, any bronzes reproduced from these plaster reproductions would not be reproductions of an original work of art as required by the definition of reproduction but copies of copies. As a result these second-generation removed three-dimensional objects in bronze would be “something that is not what it purports to be” which is, once again, one legal definition of -fake-.
In other words, by the Musee Rodin avoiding sending the hypothetical original plasters to the foundry, they have willingly given up the authentic original surface details made by the working fingers of Auguste Rodin himself or that Auguste Rodin approved through his collaboration with his “sculpteur reproducteur habituel”{9} Henri Lebosse. Each time the surface of one of these subjects is approximated by the necessary crude handling of the materials used in the reproduction processes, there is visible change. The resulting pieces may be interesting to look at, but it is an absurdity to pretend they are just the way Rodin would have wanted and intended for them to appear.
Detail from "Petite marye sur Terasse before 1885" bronze "Fonte E. Godard © 1995," p 29 & 45 respectively in the RODIN catalogue published by Tasende Gallery in 1999 in collaboration with the Musee Rodin.
2. COUNTERFEIT SIGNATURES
All “22 bronze sculptures by French sculptor Auguste Rodin {and} sculpture of Rodin by Camille Claudel,”{10} given as a “$25 million gift” to the North Carolina Museum of Art, are listed in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s published 2001 Rodin, A Magnificent Obsession catalogue as being “Signed A. Rodin” and “Signed Camille Claudel” despite eighteen of them having been reproduced posthumously or after Camille Claudel’s internment to an asylum.
The Musee Rodin counterfeits either an “A Rodin” or “Rodin” signature to their second-generation removed fakes they posthumously forged in bronze. This fraud is confirmed in Tasende Gallery’s published 1999 Sculptures from the Musee Rodin, Paris catalogue. On page 47, it states: “All work cast under commission by the Musee Rodin includes the following mandatory inscriptions” - Rodin’s signature.”
The “A Rodin” and “Rodin” inscription/signatures respectively to the so-called Auguste Rodin “Jules Dalou”{11} in 1925 and the “Damned Woman”{12} in 1979 clearly exposes the Musee Rodin’s capacity for fraud.
Auguste Rodin (d 1917) was still dead in 1925 and 1979.
The dead don't inscribed or apply their signature.
STAMPED WITH THE ARTIST’S SIGNATURE
The former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent documents on page 22 of her 1991 RODIN{13} catalogue that during Auguste Rodin’s lifetime, Auguste Rodin supplied a sample of his signature to the foundries for them to copy and stamp onto the bronzes they cast for him. Upon Auguste Rodin’s death in 1917, the right to stamp his signature died with him.
WHAT IS A SIGNATURE?
On page 1386 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -signature- is defined as: “A person’s name or mark written by that person or at the person’s direction.”
Under North Carolina Statutes 25-C-10, Article 2, Definitions, a -signed print- "means a finished fine print autographed by the artist and not by mechanical means of reproductions, whether or not it was signed or unsigned in the plate.”
WHAT IS COUNTERFEIT?
On page 354 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -counterfeit- is defined as: “To forge, copy, or imitate (something) without a right to do so and with the purpose of deceiving or defrauding.”
Would the posthumous application of a counterfeit “Rodin’s signature” to posthumously reproduced objects be done with “the purpose of deceiving or defrauding?”
Excerpt from p 121, 1976 Philadelphia Museum of Art's Sculpture of Auguste Rodin catalogue
3. EDITIONS NOT LIMITED TO TWELVE
On page 121 in Philadelphia Museum of Art’s published 1976 Sculpture of Auguste Rodin{14} catalogue, there are -eighteen- 79 inch high “The Thinkers” listed and one of them is listed as: “Cast no. 10/12” and owned by “Beverly Hills, Cantor Fitzgerald Art Foundation.”
This is the same Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation that, on their current 2007 www.cantorfoundation.org/ Rodin/Bronze/ rbrz.html website, states: “In 1956 French law limited production to twelve casts of each model. - This law was reestablished and strictly imposed in 1981.”
If the facts contradict the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s promotion that any of the so-called Rodins are “limit production of twelve casts,” can we truly count on anything they state?
"The last stage in the casting process: patination." (p 34, 1998 Sculpture Review)
4. CANTOR FOUNDATION -PICKS- THE COLOR
In 1996, the Musee Rodin allowed the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation to pick the color of Auguste Rodin’s “Monument to Victor Hugo” being posthumously reproduced in bronze.
This is confirmed in the Fall 1998 Sculpture Review trade magazine published “Casting of the Monument” article by the Coubertin founders Frederic Colombier and Jean Dubo. On page 34 of this article, the founders wrote: “After presentation of samples, the Musee Rodin and the Cantor Foundation approved the color to be achieved.”
This is additionally confirmed in Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s published 1998 Rodin’s Monument to Victor Hugo catalogue. On page 10 of the “Forward,” the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation Executive Director Rachael Blackburn states: “Ruth Butler, professor emerita at the University of Massachusetts in Boston, who wrote the introduction to this catalogue, offered her insightful guidance and worked closely with Mrs. Cantor, the Musee Rodin, and the foundry to determine the delicate nuances of the monument’s patina.”
In September 21, 1999 telephone conversation with the Musee Rodin Board of Directors member Ruth Butler, she informed me that Iris Cantor had asked her to observe the casting and patina of Auguste Rodin’s “Monument to Victor Hugo” bronze that the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation was purchasing from the Musee Rodin. When asked whether there was any historical research that would document what Auguste Rodin might had selected as the patina for this bronze, Ruth Butler answered: “it would be up to the foundry.”{15}
Finally, when asked Ruth Butler whether the Coubertin foundry, which went into business in 1963 some forty-six years after Auguste Rodin’s death, had asked for her approval of the patina, she answered: “Well.”
www.cantorfoundation.org/Rodin/Gallery/rvg65.html
5. LIFE-CAST FALSELY ATTRIBUTED TO RODIN
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s so-called “Hand of Rodin Holding Torso” is a life-cast combined with a plaster cast that was posthumously reproduced in bronze by the Georges Rudier foundry in 1968 with a counterfeit “A Rodin” signature applied.
Remember, Auguste Rodin died in 1917.
This life-cast is confirmed in the Musee Rodin’s published 2004 RODIN catalogue by the Musee Rodin curator Ralphael Masson and archivist Veronique Mattiussi. On page 210, the authors wrote: “Shortly before Rodin’s death, {Musee du Luxembourg curator & future Musee Rodin director} Benedite asked that a studio assistant make a cast of the sculptor’s hand.”{16}
Additionally, the posthumous counterfeiting of Auguste Rodin's signature to this life-cast, is backhandedly confirmed in the Philadelphia Museum of Art’s published 1976 Sculpture of Auguste Rodin catalogue by John Tancock. On page 637, the author wrote: “This composite work, made from a life cast and an original work - {was} not signed or inscribed.”
So, the moment Auguste Rodin dies, the very thing he denied his whole life doing, casting from life, is now credited to him by the Musee Rodin and others like the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, as if it makes -no- difference.
And to think the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s “Mission Statement” states they “focuses on the art of Auguste Rodin.”
Auguste Rodin's 1917 funeral.
6. MUSEE RODIN GIVEN REPRODUCTION RIGHTS
In Auguste Rodin’s 1916 Will, the State of France was given, upon his death, “the reproduction rights of those objects given by him.”
This is documented on page 285 in the former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent’s “Observations on Rodin and His Founders” essay, published in the National Gallery of Art’s published 1981 Rodin Rediscovered catalogue. In part, as noted above, the former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent documents that the Auguste Rodin’s Will stated: “notwithstanding the transfer of artistic ownership authorized to the State of M. Rodin, the latter expressly reserves for himself the enjoyment during his life, of the reproduction rights of those objects given by him.”
These specific details of Auguste Rodin’s Will are additional confirmed on page 504 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation assisted published 1993 Rodin, Shape of Genius biography by Ruth Butler. In part, the author writes: “a draft of an act of donation was drawn up and signed in Meudon on April 1, 1916, in the presence of Clementel, Valention (representing the Ministere des Beaux-Arts), and Antole de Monzie, the lawyer and deputy who had helped prepare the deed. The document included a number of safeguards for Rodin: at the Hotel Biron--thenceforth to be called the Musee Rodin--he was to be in charge of personnel. He would have the right to use the building until the end of his life, and the state would install heat. All reproduction rights to his art would remain with Rodin during his lifetime.”{17}
FORMER DIRECTOR OF THE MUSEUM OF FRANCE JEAN CHATELAIN
These two perspectives are clearly perpetuated on page 279 in the National Gallery of Art’s published 1981 Rodin Rediscovered catalogue in the “An Original in Sculpture” essay by the professor at the University of Paris and former director of the Museums of France Jean Chatelain. In part, the professor writes: “When the twelfth copy of ‘The Burghers of Calais’ is cast, the same plaster model will be used as was used the first time in 1894, but of course different craftsmen will carry out the casting.”
Unfortunately contrary to Jean Chatelain' perspective, as documented earlier in Section 1 of this monograph, the Musee Rodin violates Auguste Rodin’s 1916 Will and does not use Auguste Rodin’s original plasters ie., “objects given by him” for casting in bronze.
Musee Rodin, Paris (Source: www.musee-rodin.fr)
7. CORRUPT MUSEE RODIN
The moment of Rodin’s death in 1917, like vultures waiting to pick his bones, his former collaborators and those administratively entrusted to protect his legacy, begin subverting it.
CORRUPT MUSEE RODIN DIRECTOR LEONCE BENEDITE
A prime example of this subversion can be found in Albert Elsen’s 1985 Gates of Hell by Auguste Rodin book. On page 148, the author states: “As events after Rodin’s death were to prove, Benedite did overstep his authority on certain occasions. In the matter of the final assembly of the doorway, Judith Cladel, who was dismissed by Benedite as a curator at the Musee Rodin, wrote during the years 1933-36 that workmen told her in 1917 that Benedite edited their efforts on at least one occasion in a way they felt Rodin would not have approved: “Some of Rodin’s scandalized assistants who cast his plasters made it known to me that, charged with the reassembly of The Gates of Hell, they received orders to place certain figures in different arrangement than that which the artist wanted, because 'that would be better'.”{18}
Additionally, one of those -occasions-, is noted in Albert Elsen’s Footnote 17 on page 253 of his book. The author writes: “In 1921, during the course of a trial on charges brought by the State against a founder who was casting Rodin’s work without authorization, it was shown that Benedite had authorized the enlargement of Rodin’s La Defense after the artist’s death.”
HENRI LEBOSSE, SCULPTEUR REPRODUCTEUR HABITUEL & BETRAYER
On page 253, in Albert Elsen’s “Rodin’s ‘Perfect Collaborator,’ Henri Lebosse” essay in the National Gallery of Art’s 1981 Rodin Rediscovered exhibition catalogue, the author writes: “From the mid-1890’s until his death, Rodin entrusted most if not all of his important enlargements and reductions to this dedicated and today unknown technician who referred to himself as Rodin’s ‘sculpteur reproducteur habituel.’”
Unfortunately, Henri Lebosse became one of Auguste Rodin’s biggest betrayers. Albert Elsen documents on page 256 of his essay that after August Rodin’s death in 1917, the Musee Rodin Director Benedite directed Henri Lebosse to increase the original scale of the sculpture “The Defense” four times. Albert Elsen writes: “Tragically for Rodin’s “perfect collaborator,” the Verdun enlargement became part of a 1920 scandal involving fake works, marble carvers who continued to turn out sculpture signed with Rodin’s name, and unauthorized bronze casts by the Barbedienne foundry.”
The Musee Rodin’s inauspicious beginnings after Auguste Rodin’s death in 1917 has not changed much in ninety years as documented by the current Musee Rodin’s deceptive application of counterfeit “A Rodin” signatures to second-generation removed bronze fakes in editions not always limited to twelve.
8. AMERICA IS NOT A FRENCH PROVINCE
There are quite a few in the museum and academic industry{19} who will defend and have defended the misrepresentation of reproductions, much less posthumous reproductions, as “works of visual art” ie. “sculptures” by making blanket statements that these reproduced objects are originals in exhibits in American museums because they adhere to current “French Law” or that nineteenth-century standards are applicable.
Well, America is not a French province and this is the twentieth-first century.
U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW - WHAT IS A SCULPTURE?
Under U.S. Copyright Law 101. Definitions, a “work of visual art” ie. “sculpture” is defined as: “multiple cast, carved, or fabricated sculptures of 200 or fewer that are consecutively numbered by the author and bear the signature or other identifying mark of the author.”
In otherwords, since the 54 non-disclosed fakes in this Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession exhibit were reproduced between 1919 and 1995 some two to seventy-eight years after Auguste Rodin’s death in 1917, it should be overtly obvious Auguste Rodin could not have “consecutively numbered” anything, much less applied his “signature.”
U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW - WHAT IS A REPRODUCTION?
Additionally, under U.S. Copyright Law 101. Definitions, a “derivative work” is defined as: “a work based upon one or more preexisting works, such as {an} art reproduction.”
Furthermore, under U.S. Copyright 106A, it states the “Rights of Attribution - shall not apply to any reproduction.”
In other words, under U.S. Copyright Law, reproductions cannot be “attributed” to a living artist, much less a dead one.
FRENCH DECREE - FULL DISCLOSURE OF REPRODUCTIONS
The March 3, 1981 French decree no. 81.255, Article 9, in part, states: “All facsimiles, casts of casts, copies, or other reproductions of an original work of art as set out in Article 71 of Appendix III of the General Code of Taxes, executed after the date of effectiveness of the present decree, must carry in a visible and indelible manner the notation ‘Reproduction’.”{20}
So, whether it is U.S. Copyright Law or a French decree, reproductions are -reproductions-.
www.cantorfoundation.orgRodin, Auguste,Gates of Hell, 3rd Maquette, 1880, Musee Rodin cast 1/8 in 1991, Bronze,Cast: 1/8 Foundry: Godard,Patina: X, Dimensions: 43 5/8 x 29 1/16 x 11 3/4 in., CC ID# 1511,Iris and B. Gerald Collection, Insurance $250,000
www.stanford.eduRodin, Auguste, Kiss, the, c. 1881-82, Bronze,Cast: X Foundry: Barbedienne, Patina: brown with gold highlights,Dimensions: 10 x 6 1/4 x 5 7/8 in., CC ID# 1711, Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at Stanford University, gift of Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, Insurance $50,000
(Source: Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s exhibition and insurance checklists.)
9. CANTOR FOUNDATION’S AVARICE{21}
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation is driven by money, not scholarship. This is made clear by their own words.
RODIN 101: DOCENT MANUEL
In the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s published “RODIN 101: DOCENT MANUEL,” it asks the following question: “Is there more ‘value’ ascribed to works made by one foundry than by another?”{22}
The answer given is: “In terms of monetary ‘value’ and interest to a collector or institution, there is a higher ‘value’ put on works produced during Rodin’s lifetime. All authorized casts made by any foundry are considered ‘originals.’ However, casts that were made before Rodin’s death in 1917 are often appraised for higher amounts and fetch larger sums at auctions.”
POSTHUMOUS REPRODUCTION $200,000 MORE THAN A LIFETIME CAST
Yet, as documented above, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation have an insured value of $250,000 for Gates of Hell, 3rd Maquette reproduced in 1991, $200,000 more than a potential lifetime cast of The Kiss insured for $50,000?
Should an extra large -fake- done in the last 15 years be valued five times more in insurance value than a potential lifetime cast done with the consent of the artist himself?
Doesn’t that directly contradict the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s written assertions in their RODIN 101: DOCENT MANUEL that “casts that were made before Rodin’s death in 1917 are often appraised for higher amounts and fetch larger sums at auctions?”
Where did the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation ever get this nonsense that reproductions are “original?”
FRENCH DECREE - ORIGINAL EDITIONS IN BRONZE
This is in all probability answered by a French decree titled: “Article 1 of a joint decree by the Ministries of Culture and Finance, issued on 5 September 1978,” which regulates the internal administration of the Musee Rodin. In part, it states: “The reproduction of works of Rodin and the editions sold by the Musee Rodin consists of; -Original editions in bronze. These are executed from models in terra cotta or in plaster realized by Rodin.”{23}
In this 1978 French decree, the term “original” is used as an adjective to describe and separate the Musee Rodin’s posthumous “editions” of reproductions in bronze of Auguste Rodin’s terra cotta or plasters from others who legally may posthumously reproduce in bronze any of Auguste Rodin’s work that is in the public domain.
IRIS & B. GERALD CANTOR FOUNDATION’S AGENDA
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s agenda of passing off their posthumous non-disclosed reproductions and second-generation-removed fakes as Auguste Rodin “originals” ie. “sculptures” is, in part, detailed on the MUSEUM-L Archives website.
This website allows those in the museum industry to post messages. The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s Coordinator of Museum Program posted on August 9, 2006 under the “Subject” subtitle the following: “Rodin Exhibition Available.” In part, it states: “The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation organizes and circulates traveling exhibitions of Rodin sculpture. - There is no curatorial fee. Host museums are responsible for the costs of insurance and incoming shipping from the previous venue, as well as all typical installation and other local expenses.”
In other words, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation generates revenue by renting their so-called “Rodin sculptures” to museums and as a result their posthumous non-disclosed reproductions and second-generation-removed fakes are given the rubber-stamped air of authenticity that a museum inherently bestows which perception-wise leads to increased values which leads to future windfalls such as:
- 1) large tax-write offs for donations and/or
- 2) outright sales.
AUGUSTE RODIN,The Thinker, modeled 1880, reduced in 1903. Bronze,
14-3/4 x 7-7/8 x 11-3/8 in.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, promised gift to the North Carolina Museum of Art.
www.wag.mb.ca/htmlfiles/
WHATSON/EXIBITION/Rodin.asp
10. 25 MILLION REASONS TO DEFRAUD
On November 9, 2005 the North Carolina Museum of Art announced in their Press Release{24} that the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation will donate “the gift of 23 works of art, including 22 bronze sculptures by Rodin.” The News Observer newspaper, in Raleigh, North Carolina, published in a November 9, 2005 “Museum plans major Rodin center” article by Craig Jarvis that the “Museum director Larry Wheeler estimates the value of the gift at $25 million{25}.
This so-called -gift- was the successful catalyst for gaining the funding from the State of North Carolina for the North Carolina Museum of Art’s expansion for “new galleries, which will be part of a planned $75-million expansion initiative slated for completion in 2008. As part of the expansion, the Museum will establish a Rodin study center and name a Rodin gallery and adjacent garden in honor of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.”{26}
Unfortunately, if the North Carolina Museum of Art had established a “Rodin study center” before they accepted this so-called -gift-, the museum would have discovered there are absolutely no -works of visual art- ie., -sculptures- in this Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s donation. A minimum of scholarship and connoisseurship{27} would have disclosed this Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation donation is, at best, nothing more than -reproductions-, not sculptures. Even that generous supposition is corrupted because seventeen of these so-called "Rodins” were actually posthumously forged with counterfeit “A Rodin”{28} signatures applied between 1919 to 1987, two to seventy years after August Rodin’s death in 1917. How’d he do that?
On page 434 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, “defraud” is defined as: “To cause injury or loss to (a person) by deceit.” Would the acquisition of over $100 million dollars of taxpayers money, to expand a museum to house a collection of non-disclosed reproductions and fakes misrepresented as sculptures, “cause injury or loss to {persons} by deceit?”
On page 180 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue there two “Nude Study of Balzac (Type C)” listed. The one listed below was in a prior Cantor Foundation exhibition checklist before its’ exhibition in the NCOMA venue:
- “Nude Study of Balzac (Reduction, Type “C”), Probably 1892, Musee Rodin cast 11/12 in 1972, Bronze, Georges Rudier, 30 x 16 3/4 x 13 1/2 in., (76.2 x 42.5 x 34.3 cm), Signed A Rodin and inscribed © Musee Rodin 1972 and Georges Rudier, Fondeur, Paris., Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, 16800”
On the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s www.cantorfoundation. org/About/about3.html website, it states: “The main thrust of the Cantor Foundation's support focuses on the art of Auguste Rodin and women's health issues. The Foundation's efforts are concentrated primarily in California and New York.”
REQUIRES DISCLOSURE OF REPRODUCTIONS AS REPRODUCTIONS
In the State of New York, under the New York Civil Code 15.01 2 states: “Article fifteen of the New York arts and cultural affairs law provides for disclosure in writing of certain information - sculpture when sold for more than fifteen hundred dollars, prior to effecting a sale of them. This law requires disclosure of such matters as the identity of the artist, the artist's signature, the medium, whether the multiple is a reproduction.”
SIGNED MEANS AUTOGRAPHED BY THE ARTIST’S OWN HAND
In the State of New York, under the New York Civil Code 15.03 2 states: “Signature. If the artist's name appears on the multiple, state whether the multiple was signed by the artist. If not signed by the artist then state the source of the artist's name on the multiple, such as whether the artist placed his signature on the master, whether his name was stamped or estate stamped on the multiple, or was from some other source or in some other manner placed on the multiple.”
DISCLOSURE REQUIRED IF POSTHUMOUS
In the State of New York, under the New York Civil Code 15.03 4 states: “Use of master. (a) If the multiple is a "posthumous" multiple, that is, if the master was created during the life of the artist but the multiple was produced after the artist's death, this shall be stated.
(b) If the multiple was made from a master which produced a prior limited edition, or from a master which constitutes or was made from a reproduction of a prior multiple or of a master which produced prior multiples, this shall be stated.”
Remember, the “Nude Study of Balzac (Type C)” is listed, by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation in their catalogue, as “signed A. Rodin” and “cast in 1972.”
So, aside New York Civil Code requirements for disclosure of reproductions as “reproductions,” much less as “posthumous,” how was this non-disclosed posthumous reproduction “signed” by Auguste Rodin fifty-five years after his death in 1972?
12. CONNOISSEURSHIP
Independently documenting the definitions of key terms is an effective way to truly document the facts behind the misrepresentation of “reproductions” as “visual works of art” ie., sculptures.
WHAT IS CONNOISSEURSHIP?
In Paul Duro & Michael Greenhalgh’s published Essential Art History, “connoisseurship” is defined as: “that of the art expert able to distinguish between the authentic and non-authentic, for example between an original and a copy.”
IRIS AND B. GERALD CANTOR FOUNDATION’S “MISSION STATEMENT”
On the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s www.cantor foundation.org/About/about3.html website, their “Mission Statement,” in part, states that they are: “a private operating foundation established in 1978 to promote and encourage recognition and appreciation of excellence in the arts- {and the} main thrust of the Cantor Foundation's support focuses on the art of Auguste Rodin -.”
Additionally, the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation claims on their www.cantorfoundation.org website that the “Foundation places great emphasis on Rodin scholarship.”
WHAT IS SCHOLARSHIP?
On Bartleby.com, -scholarship- is defined as: “knowledge resulting from study and research in a particular field.”
Let’s compare independently documented definitions of key basic art terms to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s definitions, published on their website under the heading “Glossary of Terms,” to determine their connoisseurship and scholarship.
WHAT IS A SCULPTURE?
On page 372 in Ralph Mayer’s HarperCollins Dictionary of Art Terms & Techniques, -sculpture- is defined as: “the creation of three dimensional forms by carving, modeling or assembly. In carving, the sculptor removes unwanted material.... In modeling on the other hand, the sculptor creates a form by building it up...”
WHAT IS A SCULPTOR?
This is answered in the J. Paul Getty Trust’s www.getty.edu website. Under their Getty Vocabulary Program, -sculptor- is defined as: “artists who specialize in creating images and forms that are carried out primarily in three dimensions, generally in the media of stone, wood, or metal.”
CANTOR FOUNDATION’S DEFINITION OF SCULPTURE
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation on their www.cantorfoundation.org/ Education/guide5.html website, under their "Glossary of Terms,” define -sculpture- as: “the art or practice of creating three-dimensional forms or figures.”
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, on their www.cantorfoundation.org/Education/guide5.html website under “Glossary of Terms,” does not have definition listed for -sculptor-. Why does the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation not mention in anyway the physical participation of the sculptor in its’ definition of -sculpture-?
U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW - WORK OF VISUAL ART
Under U.S. Copyright Law 101. Definitions, a “work of visual art” ie., -sculpture- is defined as: “multiple cast, carved, or fabricated sculptures of 200 or fewer that are consecutively numbered by the author and bear the signature or other identifying mark of the author.”
U.S. COPYRIGHT LAW - RIGHTS OF ATTRIBUTION
Additionally, as noted earlier, under U.S. Copyright Law 106A. Rights of Attribution - “shall not apply to any reproduction.”
WHAT IS A REPRODUCTION?
On page 350 in Ralph Mayer’s HarperCollins Dictionary of Art Terms & Techniques, -reproduction- is defined as: “a general term for any copy, likeness, or counterpart of an original work of art or of a photograph, done in the same medium as the original or in another, and done by someone other than the creator of the original.”
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, on their www.cantorfoundation. org/Education/guide5.html website under “Glossary of Terms,” does not have definition listed for -reproduction-.
Since Auguste Rodin died in 1917, obviously anything posthumously reproduced would be, at best by definition and under U.S. Copyright Law, a -reproduction-.
WHAT IS THE DEFINITION OF CAST?
On page 70 of Ralph Mayer’s 1999 The HarperCollins Dictionary of Art Terms & Techniques -cast- is defined as: “to reproduce an object, such as a piece of sculpture, by means of a MOLD.”
CANTOR FOUNDATION’S DEFINITION OF CAST
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation on their www.cantorfoundation.org/ Education/guide5.html website, under “Glossary of Terms,” define -cast- as: “a sculpture produced with a mold.”
Yet, on the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s www.cantorfoundation.org/ Rodin/Bronze/casting1.html website, it states: “after closing the mold around the clay model, wax is poured into the space between the model and the mold. This stage is crucial in producing a perfect reproduction of the initial sculpture.”
The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation impeaches its’ own scholarship when it first makes the -representation- that their “sculptures {are} produced with a mold” then makes the -disclosure- that their so-called “sculptures” are actually “perfect reproduction{s} of the initial sculpture {using a mold},” as if sculpture and reproduction are interchangeable.
For anyone to make a representation, that objects in their collection or exhibit, are -sculptures- then at the end make the disclosure that they were -cast- ie., reproduced, as if these concepts were interchangeable, would be a -non-sequitur-.
WHAT IS A NON-SEQUITUR?
On page 1080 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -non-sequitur- is defined as: “an inference or conclusion that does not logically follow from the premises.”
In other words, by definition and under U.S. Copyright Law, you cannot call a reproduction a visual work of art ie., sculpture, much less attribute that reproduction to that artist whether they are alive or dead. Without full and honest disclosure to reproductions as reproductions by all museums, how can the consumer give informed consent before they chose to attend an exhibit whether they pay admission or not?
WHAT IS MEANT BY REPRESENTATION?
On page 1303 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -representation- is defined as: “a presentation of fact - either by words or by conduct - made to induce someone to act, esp to enter into a contract.”
NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART’S REPRESENTATION
On November 9, 2005 the University of North Carolina Public Radio’s Host David Crabtree interviewed{29} North Carolina Museum of Art curator David Steel concerning the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation gift of “important works by Auguste Rodin to the museum’s collection.” In that interview David Steel stated: “There is going to be twenty-two sculptures by Rodin and actually one other sculpture by his mistress Camille Claudel who did a bust of Rodin. So, I was very eager to get that for the museum as well. The works that are coming are range in size from over life size to small. They cover the whole of Rodin’s career.”
WHAT IS A CONTRACT?
On page 381 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -contract- is defined as: “an agreement between two or more parties creating obligations that are enforceable or otherwise recognizable at law.”
NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART’S {CONTRACT}
In that same UNC radio interview, North Carolina Museum of Art’s curator David Steel stated: “as a state museum our obligation is to education the children and the adults of the state.”
Specifically on the North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources website it states: “our mission is to enrich the cultural, educational, and economic well-being of North Carolina's citizens and visitors. We do this by working to enhance the availability and quality of our state's historic, library, and artistic resources.”{30}
WHAT IS MEANT BY DISCLOSURE?
On page 476 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -disclosure- is defined as: “the act or process of making known something that was previously unknown.”
NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART’S DISCLOSURE
The state-run North Carolina Museum of Art’s disclosure, for this “$25 million gift of Rodin sculptures” from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, did not in the UNC’s North Carolina Public Radio’s November 8, 2005 interview with the North Carolina Museum of Art’s curator David Steel or in the State of North Carolina Office of Governor’s November 9, 2005 release once referred to any object in this “Gift” as being cast, reproduced, posthumous or as a reproduction despite the twenty-three so-called “sculptures” being at least reproductions, much less forgeries.
Without full and honest disclosure to these contentious issues of authenticity by the state-run North Carolina Museum of Art, how can the legislature, much less the state’s governor, give informed consent before they chose to fund a $100 museum expansion of the North Carolina Museum of Art to house these non-disclosed reproductions, much less the posthumous fakes?
WHAT IS (INFORMED) CONSENT?
On page 300 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -consent- is defined as an: “agreement, approval or permission as to some act or purpose, esp. given voluntarily by a competent person.”
WHAT IS FRAUD?
On page 670 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -fraud- is defined as: “a knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment.”
So, would a museum’s misrepresentation of posthumous second-generation removed fakes, much less reproductions, as “sculptures,” for monetary considerations, be committing “a knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment?”
13. ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
On the North Carolina Museum of Art’s www.ncartmuseum.org website, under the title “SUPPORT THE MUSEUM,” the museum’s director Larry Wheeler writes: “Did you know the Museum must raise $8 million annually to support programs, services and operations for this unique statewide public museum? In order to help the Museum fulfill its mission, we invite (and rely on) the support of friends and members across North Carolina and beyond. Your financial gift is critical because it provides access for thousands of schoolchildren who are able to see and explore our world-class collection of art. In addition, we bring the world closer to you by presenting special exhibitions and public programming that enhances your Museum experience.”
Despite the rhetoric, the North Carolina Museum of Art is misrepresenting non-disclosed reproductions and second-generation-removed -fakes-, as “sculpture.”{31}
Is that an acceptable “mission” for “thousands of schoolchildren?”
That question is addressed by the University of North Carolina’s integrity.unc.edu/faq.html website, under the title: “Academic Integrity in teaching and learning.” In part, it states: “the Honor Code discusses 'academic dishonesty' in the following terms: It shall be the responsibility of every student enrolled at the University of North Carolina to support the principles of academic integrity and to refrain from all forms of academic dishonesty, including but not limited to, the following: I. Plagiarism in the form of deliberate or reckless representation of another’s words, thoughts, or ideas as one’s own without attribution in connection with submission of academic work, whether graded or otherwise., II. Falsification, fabrication, or misrepresentation of data, other information, or citations in connection with an academic assignment, whether graded or otherwise.”
The University of North Carolina’s penalties for violations of “The Honor Code,” in part, states: “in instances of academic dishonesty, students generally receive a grade penalty (an F on the assignment, course component or aspect, or course); and either suspension or probation, often with additional educational requirements (perhaps writing a paper, taking another course, participating in a program offered by the Writing Center, or something of that sort).”
In other words, should the North Carolina Museum of Art, a cultural institution, be held to a lesser ethical standard than any student, much less University of North Carolina students?
14. CONCLUSION
What needs to be accomplished is the full and honest disclosure of all reproductions as -reproductions- by all museums, auction houses and art dealers. If the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation and the North Carolina Museum of Art will give full and honest disclosure for all reproductions as: -reproductions- it would allow museum patrons to give informed consent on whether they wish to attend an exhibit of reproductions, much less pay the price of admission
But if these objects are not reproductions by definition, direct copies of the artist’s original artwork, but second-generation-removed (or more) -fakes- with or without posthumously forged counterfeit signatures, then serious consequences of law may come into play for those who chose to misrepresent these -fakes- for profit.
The reputations and legacy of living and past artists, present and future museum art patrons and the art-buying public deserve the re-establishment of the obvious; that the living presence and participation of the artist to once again be required, as it always should have been, to create the piece of art attributable to the artist if indeed it is attributed to them, much less purported to have been signed by them.
PRINCIPALS:
Lawrence J. Wheeler, Ph.D.
Director
North Carolina Museum of Art
2110 Blue Ridge Road
Raleigh, NC 27607-6494
lwheeler@ncmamaildcr.state.nc.us
(919) 839-6262
Judith Sobol
Director
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1801 Avenue of the Stars, Suite 435
Los Angeles, CA 90067
jsobol@ibgcf.org
(310) 277-4600
FOOTNOTES:
1. www,governor.state.nc.us/News_FullStory.asp?id_2581
2. On page 617 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -fake- is defined as: “Something that is not what it purports to be.”
3. www,governor.state.nc.us/News_FullStory.asp?id_2581
4. On page 670 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary, -fraud- is defined as: “A knowing misrepresentation of the truth or concealment of a material fact to induce another to act to his or her detriment.”
5. www,governor.state.nc.us/News_FullStory.asp?id_2581
6) page 356, “Camille Claudel - Laughing Man - cast by Alexis Rudier 1925.” 2005 Camille Claudel and Rodin: Fateful Encounter catalogue ISBN 2 7541 0001 6
7) On page 285 in the former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent’s “Observations on Rodin and His Founders” essay, published in the National Gallery of Art’s published 1981 Rodin Rediscovered catalogue.
8) HOW TO FIND THE ABOVE MUSEE RODIN QUOTE:
First, go to the www.musee-rodin.fr/welcome.htm website,
then under “Contents on the left column click on “Collections,”
once on new screen click on the “Meudon” button,
then scoll down new screen till you reach the photograph of
“Assemblage of two figures of Even and crouching women”
and then count fourteen lines down for the quote.
9) On page 249 of the 1981 Rodin Rediscovered, -sculpteur reproducteur- applied to Henri Lebosse is written about in Albert Elsen’s “Rodin’s ‘Perfect Collaborator,’ Henri Lebosse” essay.
10) www,governor.state.nc.us/News_FullStory.asp?id_2581
11) page 54, Rodin’s Monument to Victor Hugo by Ruth Butler, Jeanine Parisier Plottel and Jane Mayo Roos ISBN 1 85894 070 2
12) page 90-91, Rodin, The Cantor Gift to The Brooklyn Museum by Lynne Ambrosini and Michelle Facos ISBN 0-87372-111-1
13) Copyright © 1988 by Ste Nlle des Editions du Chene ISBN 0-8050-1252-4
14) 1976 Sculpture of Auguste Rodin by John Tancock, ISBN 0-87923-157-2
15) Hard copy of this telephone conversation was OVERNIGHTED by U.S. Postal Service (Tracking No. EE43307188US) on September 23, 1999 to Ruth Butler 41 Holden Street Cambridge, MA 02138-2038
16) © Editions Flammartion, Paris-Musee Rodin 2004 ISBN (Editions Flammarion): 2-0803-0445-3
17) Copyright © 1993 by Ruth Butler, ISBN 0-300-05400-0
18) © 1985 by Albert E. Elsen ISBN 0-8047-1273-5, Published with the assistance of the Cantor Fitzgerald Foundation
19) In a April 2, 2004 Buffalo News “Letter to Editor” posted on their www.buffalonews.com/editorial/20040402/ 1020607.asp website the Albright_Knox Art Gallery’s Curator of Modern Art Kenneth Wayne, in part, wrote “All works in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation Collection are unquestionably original Rodins, cast in bronze from the artist’s sculpted clay and plaster models. The bronze casts on view were created either during Rodin’s lifetime by his own hired craftsmen, or after his death.”
In a Globe and Mail’s published June 24, 2005 “Rodin’s cast of hundreds” article by Danelle Egan, Vancouver Art Gallery curator Ian Thom did admit that “the hand of Rodin did not touch these sculptures.” However, he added, “that’s not unusual because 19th-century sculptors hired technicians to finish the sculptures.”
20) On page 281, Jean Chatelain’s “Original in Sculpture,” 1981 Rodin Rediscovered ISBN 0-89468-001-3 (pbk)
21) -Avarice- is defined, on page 22 in the Webster’s New World Pocket Dictionary, as: “greed for money.”
22) www.cantorfoundation.org/PDFfiles/Rodin101.pdf
23) On page 281, Jean Chatelain’s “Original in Sculpture,” 1981 Rodin Rediscovered ISBN 0-89468-001-3 (pbk)
24) “NORTH CAROLINA MUSEUM OF ART RECEIVES UNPRECEDENTED RODIN GIFT FROM THE IRIS AND B. GERALD CANTOR FOUNDATION”
www.ncartmuseum.org/pressroom/pressreleases/General%20Releases/Rodin%20gift.shtml
25) www.newsobserver.com/167/story/365653.html On November 9, 2005 the Raleigh, North Carolina located Newsobserver newspaper published the “Museum plans major Rodin center” article by Staff Writer Craig Jarvis (829-4576 or cjarvis@newsobserver.com). In part, the staff writer wrote: “Museum director Larry Wheeler estimates the value of the gift at $25 million. It is the largest present of art to the museum since it received 75 works from a foundation four years after it opened in 1956.”
26) www.ncartmuseum.org/pressroom/pressreleases/General%20Releases/Rodin%20gift.shtml
27) In Paul Duro & Michael Greenhalgh’s published Essential Art History, “connoisseurship” is defined as: “that of the art expert able to distinguish between the authentic and non-authentic, for example between an original and a copy.” rubens.anu.edu.au/htdocs/teach/eah/ImageServe
28) pages 175-190, RODIN, A Magnificent Obsession, ISBN 1 85894 143 1 hardback
29) www.ibiblio.org/wunc_archives/sot/index.php?m=200511
30) www.ncdcr.gov/musofartimages.asp
North Carolina Department of Cultural Resources
109 East Jones Street || MSC 4601
Raleigh, NC 27699-4601
Phone: (919) 807-7385
Fax: (919) 733-1620
E-mail our Information and Marketing Services Department
fay.henderson@ncmail.net
31) www,governor.state.nc.us/News_FullStory.asp?id_2581
WEBSITE:
www.garyarseneau.blogspot.com
ADDENDUM
1. On page 176 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Ugolino and Sons” is listed as follows:
“Ugolino and Sons
c. 1881-82, date of cast unknown
Bronze
No foundry mark
16 1/8 x 16 7/8 x 19 7/8 in.
(41 x 42.9 x 50.5 cm)
Signed A. Rodin and inscribed 2eme epreuve.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1550”
2. On page 182 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “Call to Arms” is listed as follows:
“Call to Arms
1879, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Alexis Rudier
44 1/2 x 22 1/2 x 15 in.
(113 x 57.2 x 38.1 cm)
Signed A. Rodin and inscribed Alexis RUDIER FONDEUR PARIS
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1546”
3. On page 177 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “I am Beautiful” is listed as follows:
“I am Beautiful
Before 1886, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Alexis Rudier
27 3/4 x 12 x 12 in.
(70.5 x 30.5 x 31.7 cm)
Signed and stamped inside with raised signature A. Rodin and inscribed Alexis Rudier Fondeur Paris and the following quotation from Charles Baudelaire’s Les Fleurs du mal: Je suis belle o mortels, comme un reve de pierre Et mon sein ou chacun s’est meurtri tour a tour Est fait pour inspirer au poete un amour Eternel et muet ainsi que la matiere
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1714”
4. On page 177 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Fugitive Love” is listed as follows:
“Fugitive Love
Before 1887, cast 2, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Alexis Rudier
20 3/4 x 33 x 15 in.
(52.7 x 83.8 x 38.1 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No. 2 and inscribed Alexis Rudier/ Fondeur PARIS
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1305”
5. On page 175 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “The Thinker” is listed as follows:
“The Thinker
1880, reduced in 1903, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Alexis Rudier
14 3/4 x 7 7/8 x 11 3/8 in.
(37.5 x 20 x 28.9 cm)
Signed A. Rodin and inscribed Alexis Rudier, Fondeur, Paris.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1499”
6. On page 176 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “The Kiss” is listed as follows:
“The Kiss
c. 1881-82, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Alexis Rudier
34 x 17 x 22 in.
(80.4 x 43.2 x55.9 cm)
Signed A. Rodin and inscribed Alexis RUDIER Fondeur, PARIS with raised signature A. Rodin inside.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1689”
NOTES:
“The Kiss” is listed in a prior“Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession, Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation” exhibition checklist (Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s “Dayton Art Institute, Working Checklist, May 7, 1998”) as: “Original plaster version executed in 1886; this bronze cast at a later date - Foundry: Alexis Rudier.”
LEBLANC-BARBEDIENNE CAST THE KISS TILL 1919
The Alexis Rudier foundry was in business from 1902 to 1952 (page 290 in former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent’s RODIN AND HIS FOUNDERS essay published in the National Gallery of Art’s 1981 Rodin Rediscovered exhibition catalogue.) some sixteen years after the listed date of “1886.” But it doesn’t end there. The Leblanc-Barbedienne foundry owned the contract for reproducing The Kiss, in bronze, till 1919 (page 289 in former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent’s RODIN AND HIS FOUNDERS essay published in the National Gallery of Art’s 1981 Rodin Rediscovered exhibition catalogue). The author writes: “Leblanc-Barbedienne thus owned exclusive rights to the working of reductions for the Eternal Spring and of The Kiss except for the original size which the sculptor reserved for himself, but with the obligation to reserve the casting for the same firm.” ).
ALEXIS RUDIER FOUNDRY AFTER 1919
Therefore, the earliest the Alexis Rudier foundry could have legally reproduced “The Kiss,” in bronze, would have been in 1919 some two years or more after Auguste Rodin’s death in 1917. That is almost thirty-three odd years after the overtly misleading “1886” date listed for “The Kiss” by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.
7.On page 188 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “The Catherdral” is listed as follows:
“The Cathedral
Original stone version executed in 1908 Musee Rodin cast in 1955
Bronze
Georges Rudier
25 1/4 x 12 3/4 x 13 1/2 in.
(64.1 x 32.3 x 34.3 cm)
Inscribed Georges Rudier, Fondeur, Paris © Musee Rodin 1955 and signed A. Rodin inside.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
15600”
8. On page 186 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “Flying Figure” is listed as follows:
“Flying Figure
c. 1890-91, date of cast unknown {“Cast 12” 2000 Cantor Foundation’s Dayton Art Institute} Checklist”
Bronze
Georges Rudier
20 1/2 x 29 1/2 x 12 in.
(52.1 x 74.9 x 30.5 cm)
Signed A. Rodin and inscribed Georges Rudier Fondeur Paris © By Musee Rodin.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1302”
NOTE: As referenced earlier by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation, the State of France mandated in 1957 (“1956” listed by IBGCF) the edition limitation of twelve. This is confirmed on page 281 by Jean Chatelain in his “An Original in Sculpture” essay published in the 1981 Rodin Rediscovered catalogue. In part, the author writes: “castings of sculptures in a series limited to eight copies - General Code of Taxes, Appendix iii, Article 17.”
Therefore, since the “Flying Figure” was cast by the Georges Rudier foundry and in a numbered edition of “Cast 12,” it would have to been reproduced sometime after 1957, instead of the misleading date of “c. 1890-91, date of cast unknown” given by the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation.
9. On page 179 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Monumental Head of Pierre de Wiessant” is listed as follows:
“Monumental Head of Pierre de Wiessant
c. 1884-85, enlarged about 1909, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Godard
32 x 19 x 20 1/2 in.
(81.3 x 48.3 x 52.1 cm)
Signed and inscribed A. Rodin and Godard-Fondeur, Paris
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
775”
NOTE: “Monumental Head of Pierre de Wiessant,” with “CC ID# 775” identification number, is listed in a prior Nevada Museum of Art’s Rodin Sculpture from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation checklist as being “cast” by the “Godard” foundry.
GODARD FOUNDRY
The former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent documents on page 293 in her “Rodin and His Founders” essay, published in the 1981 Rodin Rediscovered catalogue, that the “{E.} Godard” foundry began working with the Musee Rodin in “1969,” some fifty-two years after Auguste Rodin died in 1917.
E. GODARD FOUNDRY DIRECTOR
This further confirmed by the E. Godard foundry director L. de Cristofaro in a February 8, 2005 correspondence from France to this author that their foundry “fontes postumes” ie. posthumously cast “Rodin{s}.”
10. On page 177 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue there are two “Danaid” listed. They are listed as follows:
(a) “Danaid
1885-89, Musee Rodin cast 5/12 in 1969
Bronze
Georges Rudier
12 3/4 x 28 3/4 x 22 1/2 in.
(32.4 x 73 x 57.2 cm)
Inscribed © Musee Rodin 1969 and Georges Rudier Fondeur Paris.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection, promised gift to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
11700”
(b) “Danaid
1885-89, Musee Rodin cast 8 in 1979
Bronze
Godard
12 3/4 x 28 3/4 x 22 1/2 in.
(32.4 x 73 x 57.2 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No. 8 and inscribed E. GODARD Fondr and © BY MUSEE RODIN 1979.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1600”
11. On page 180 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue there two “Nude Study of Balzac (Type C)” listed. The one listed below was in a prior Cantor Foundation exhibition checklist before its’ exhibition in the NCOMA venue:
“Nude Study of Balzac (Reduction, Type “C”)
Probably 1892, Musee Rodin cast 11/12 in 1972
Bronze
Georges Rudier
30 x 16 3/4 x 13 1/2 in.
(76.2 x 42.5 x 34.3 cm)
Signed A Rodin and inscribed © Musee Rodin 1972 and Georges Rudier, Fondeur, Paris.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
16800”
12. On page 181 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose” is listed as follows:
“Mask of the Man with the Broken Nose
1863-64, Musee Rodin cast 3/12 probably in the 1970’s
Bronze
Coubertin
12 1/2 x 7 1/4 x 6 in.
(31.8 x 18.4 x 15.2 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No. 3 with Coubertin foundry mark.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1605”
13. On page 184 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “St. John the Baptist Preaching” is listed as follows:
“St. John the Baptist Preaching
c. 1880, Musee Rodin cast in 1974
Bronze
Georges Rudier
19 3/4 x 11 x 9 1/8 in.
(50.2 x 27.9 x 23.2 cm)
Signed A. Rodin No. 2 and inscribed Georges Rudier.fondeur.Paris. and © by Musee Rodin 1974
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1601”
14. On page 178 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Jean d’Aire, Nude” is listed as follows:
“Jean d’Aire, Nude
c. 1884-86, Musee Rodin cast 4 in 1976
Bronze
Georges Rudier
41 3/4 x 13 3/4 x 11 7/8 in.
(106.1 x 34.9 x 30.2 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin/ No. 4 and inscribed Georges Rudier/Fondeur/Paris.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1554”
15. On page 187 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “The Prayer” is listed as follows:
“The Prayer
1910, Musee Rodin cast 5 in 1979
Bronze
Godard
49 1/2 x 21 5/8 x 19 5/8 in.
(125.7 x 54.9 x 49.8 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin/No 5 and inscribed E. GODARD/ Fondr and © By MUSEE Rodin 1979.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1553”
16. On page 176 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the enlarged “Fallen Caryatid With Stone is listed as follows:
“Fallen Caryatid with Stone
1880-81, enlarged 1911-17, Musee Rodin cast II/IV in 1988
Bronze
Coubertin
52 1/2 x 33 x 39 in.
(133.4 x 83.8 x 99.1 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No. II?IV and inscribed © By Musee Rodin 1988 with Coubertin foundry mark.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1563”
17. On page 179 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Jean de Fiennes, Vetu” is listed as follows:
“Jean de Fiennes, Vetu
1885-86, Musee Rodin cast 5/8 in 1983
Bronze
Coubertin
82 x 48 x 38 in.
(208.3 x 121.9 x 96.5 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin and No. 5/8 and inscribed © By Musee Rodin 1983 with Coubertin foundry mark.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1330”
18. On page 190 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “Sorrow” is listed as follows:
“Sorrow
1889, Musee Rodin cast III/IV in 1983
Bronze
Coubertin
11 1/2 x 6 1/2 x 6 3/4 in.
(29.2 x 16.5 x 17.1 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No III/IV and inscribed © By Musee Rodin 1983 and LA PORTE DE L’ENFER 1977-1981 DON DE B. GERALD CANTOR.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1356”
19. On page 176 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue there are two 75 1/2 inch high “The Three Shades” listed. They are listed as follows:
(a) “The Three Shades
1880-1904, single figure conceived about 1880, enlarged individually in 1904, group composition by 1904. Musee Rodin cast 3/8 in 1983.
Bronze
Coubertin
75 1/2 x 75 1/2 x 42 in.
(191.8 x 191.8 x 106.7 cm)
Signed A. Rodin with Coubertin foundry mark and inscribed © By Musee Rodin 1983.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection, promised gift to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1343”
(b) “The Three Shades
1880-1904, single figure conceived about 1880, enlarged individually in 1901, group composition by 1904. Musee Rodin cast II/IV in 1991.
Bronze
Coubertin
75 1/2 x 75 1/2 x 42 in.
(191.8 x 191.8 x 106.7 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin/No. II/IV and inscribed © By MUSEE RODIN 1991 with the Coubertin foundry mark.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection Foundation
1628”
20. On page 186 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Monumental Torso of the Walking Man” is listed as follows:
“Monumental Torso of the Walking Man
c. 1905, Musee Rodin cast 4/8 in 1985
Bronze
Godard
43 1/3 x 26 3/4 x 15 in.
(110.1 x 67.9 x 38.1 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No. 4/8 and inscribed E. GODARD Fondr and © BY MUSEE Rodin 1985
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1410”
21. On page 186 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue there two “Cybele{s}” is listed as follows:
(a) “Cybele
c. 1890, enlarged in 1904, Musee Rodin cast 3/8 in 1982
Bronze
Coubertin
64 x 34 x 56 in.
(165.1 x 86.4 x 142.2 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No 3/8 with Coubertin foundry mark and © by Musee Rodin 1982.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection, promised gift to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1189”
(b) “Cybele
c. 1890, enlarged in 1904, Musee Rodin cast 7/8 in 1987
Bronze
Coubertin
64 x 34 x 56 in.
(165.1 x 86.4 x 142.2 cm)
Signed A. Rodin with Coubertin foundry mark and inscribed © by Musee Rodin 1987.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1473”
22. On page 178 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue the “Toilette of Venus and Andromede” is listed as follows:
“Toilette of Venus and Andromede
No date, Musee Rodin cast II/IV in 1987
Bronze
Godard
20 x 14 1/2 x 23 1/2 in.
(50.8 x 36.8 x 59.7 cm)
Signed and numbered A. Rodin No. II/IV and inscribed E. Godard Fondeur and © By musee Rodin 1987.
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1510”
23. On page 190 of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s 2001 Rodin A Magnificent Obsession catalogue “Bust of Rodin” and “Ten-step Lost-wax Casting Process” are listed as follows:
“CLAUDEL, CAMILLE (French, 1864-1942)
Bust of Rodin
1882-92, date of cast unknown
Bronze
Alexis Rudier
15 3/4 x 9 1/4 x 11 in.
(40 x 23.5 x 28 cm)
Signed Camille Claudel
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
593”
24. “Ten-step Lost-wax Casting Process of Rodin’s Sorrow
1987
Plaster, clay, wax, ceramic and bronze
Coubertin
10 pieces, approx. 15 x 10 x 8 in. each
(10 pieces, 38.1 x 25.4 x 20.3 cm each)
Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection, promised gift to the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
1436”
posted by Gary Arseneau | 10:35 PM
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