FAKE RODIN at the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin

Updated: December 30, 2010

Note: All footnotes are enclosed with { }

The Metropolitan Museum of Art’s so-called Auguste Rodin "Burghers of Calais" in the Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin is a -fake-{1}.

This non-disclosed -fake- was posthumously -forged- in “1985”{2} with a counterfeit “A. Rodin”{3} signature and edition number “I/II{4}” applied, some sixty-eight years after Auguste Rodin’s death in 1917. By definition{5}, rule of law{6} and laws of nature, the dead don’t sculpt{7}, much less sign and numbered.{8}

In the Neue Nationalegallerie in Berlin’s May 30, 2007 “Press Release No. 8,”{9} for their June 1, 2007 to October 7, 2007 “Met in Berlin’ exhibition, it describes this non-disclosed 20th-century -fake- as a “19th-century sculpture”{10} and a “Rodin moving sculpture.”{11}

FOOTNOTES:
1. “something that is not what it purports to be,” page 617 of the Seventh Edition of Black’s Law Dictionary.
2. On page 166, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 1986 published RODIN, The B. Gerald Cantor Collection catalogue, their so-called Auguste Rodin The Burgers of Calais is listed as follows: “1884-95, cast 1985, Bronze, 82 1/2 x 94 x 75 in., Signed: A. Rodin, No. I/II (front center base), Marks: ©. by Musee Rodin 1985: Coubertin Foundry seal with a flower flanked by the letters F and C (rear base, left side, B. Gerald Cantor Collections”
3. Ibid
4. Ibid
5. in the J. Paul Getty Trust’s www.getty.edu website. Under their Getty Vocabulary Program the term “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.”
6. "Counterfeit" means a work of fine art or multiple made, altered or copied, with or without intent to deceive, in such manner that it appears or is claimed to have an authorship which it does not in fact possess.” (New Civil Code 11.01 Definitions)
7. Under U.S. Copyright Law 106A. Rights of Attribution - “shall not apply to any reproduction.”
8. 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.”
9. Neue Nationalgalerie in Berlin’s May 30, 2007 Press Release Nr. 8 “Die schonsten Franzosen kommen aus New York” www.metinberlin.org/en/exhibition/
10. Ibid
11. Ibid

PHOTOGRAPHS:
1. www.metmuseum.org/toah/ images/h2/h2_1989.407.jpg
2. (Detail) "Burghers of Calais 1884-95, cast 1985, Bronze, 82 1/2 x 94 x 75 on page 71of the Metropolitan Museum of Art’s 1986 published RODIN, The B. Gerald Cantor Collection catalogue