Dear Editor,

There are no sculptures, attributable to Auguste Rodin, in the Syracuse University Art Galleries’ August 16, 2018 to November 18, 2018 Rodin: The Human Experience, Selections from the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collections exhibition. The exhibition contains non-disclosed posthumous (1925-1995) second-generation removed forgeries with counterfeit “A Rodin” signatures in bogus editions falsely attributed to a dead Auguste Rodin (d 1917).

The exhibition’s “ORIGINAL WORKS” didactic panel states: “To provide funding for his museum, Rodin took the then-unusual step of authorizing posthumous casting of his bronzes, to then be sold to benefit the museum. Such cast are termed “authorized posthumous casts” and are deemed originals by French law and the international art world.”

Aside, Syracuse University is not in France and America is not a French province, this Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation’s nonsense is overtly contradicted by August Rodin’s 1916 Will documented by the former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent in her “Observations on Rodin and His Founders” essay, published in the National Gallery of Art’s 1981 Rodin Rediscovered catalogue. On page 285, the former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent wrote: “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.”

Additionally, the exhibition’s didactic panel states: “In this exhibition each label will help you understand the origin of the piece. The label tells you when Rodin originally modeled the piece in clay or plaster.”

In a February 1, 2000 FAX to Gary Arseneau, the Musee Rodin curator Antoinette Le Normand-Romain wrote the following: “In response to your fax of 26 January, I precise that when the edition of a new subject shall be decided, we derive a new ordeal in the molds that our listings have to avoid sending the originals platres a foundry. These molds are the molds of Rodin, and we therefore provide a perfect fidelity. This way the original plasters remain intact.”

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.’”

Sincerely,

Gary Arseneau

Artist, creator of original lithographs

Published on September 9, 2018 at 8:07 pm