Blog Subscription via Follow.it

March 10, 2011

Thursday, March 10, 2011 - ,, No comments

"Musée Rodin's Communique Respecting Rodin's Moral Right: A Warning to Collectors about the Notion of Authenticity"

by Catherine Schofield Sezgin, Editor
Rodin's "The Thinker" (Norton Simon Museum)

Today I was distracted from provenance research at the Getty Research Institute by a printed current copy of The Art Newspaper. The Musée Rodin published a half page advertisement on the bottom half of page 52 of the March issue a "warning to collectors about the notion of authenticity." The Musée Rodin, as beneficiary, is the only entity that can issue original editions of the artist's work: "a growing number of bronze 'reproductions' or 'aftercasts'" "which do not bear the mark of 'reproductions' or 'aftercasts' are often accompanied by documents, notably certificated attesting to their alleged 'authenticity.' If you would like to read more, you may find the entire communique, in English, at the museum's website here. For those collectors who would like to have a copy of "The Thinker", a resin reproduction may be purchased at the museum's gift shop for 675 euros. The museum's gift shop can be viewed online here.  For now, I'm happy to be able to walk by the Norton Simon Museum every day where a large "Thinker" overlooks the traffic on Colorado Boulevard.  I wonder what he's thinking...that's he's a long way away from Paris?

0 comments: