Gary Arseneau - Deception: Are These Really Rodins?

To properly address the serious issues of full and honest disclosure, we must first document the definitions of the key terms: "reproduction", "replica", "original", "sculpture", "sculptor", "signature", "fake", "forgeries" and "counterfeit." Then using those independent and published definitions, the documented facts surrounding this exhibit with the relevant statutory laws applied and including industry’s endorsed standards on ethics, one will come to only one conclusion: "Dead people don’t make art." 

RODIN’S "RIGHT OF REPRODUCTION".gifT TO FRANCE 

First let’s address one important and serious omission the MacLaren Art Centre and others involved in this type of deception make. The MacLaren Art Centre writes: "He {Rodin} bequeaths his estate to the French government for the installation of a Rodin museum at the Hotel Biron." The key but very important omission is that Auguste Rodin specifically gave in writing in 1916 to the State of France upon his death the "right of reproduction" to his art. This "right of reproduction" is documented by the former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent on page 285 in the National Gallery of Art’s 1981 Rodin Rediscovered exhibition catalogue: 

"Let us indicate right away on this subject that he never fixed a precise limit to the number made. The only indication on this point occurs in the text of the donation of 1 April 1916, according to which "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, being well understood that the said right of reproduction will remain strictly personal to the donor who is forbidden to cede it for whatever reason to any third party. He will have, in consequence, the right to reproduce and to edit his works and to make impressions or mold for the usage which suits him. In the event that M. Rodin, exercising the right that he has thus reserved, contracts with an art editor for the reproduction in bronze of one or several works included in the present donation, the contract of publication cannot be made for a period of more than five years and the number of reproductions of each work shall not exceed ten." 

This excerpt from Auguste Rodin’s 1916 "Will" makes it quite clear that Auguste Rodin understood his "right of reproduction" he was giving to the State of France upon his death. It is also very clear that the State of France also understood the "right of reproduction" so well that they got edition of "ten" restrictions and "five year publication" time constraints put on Auguste Rodin before his death but with no such posthumous restrictions put upon themselves. So after Auguste Rodin died November 17, 1917 the State of France then owned the "right of reproduction" to Auguste Rodin’s art to make "reproductions." Eighty-four years later in 2001, much of Auguste Rodin’s art is in the public domain so anyone can reproduce it. Why would the MacLaren Art Centre and others fail to disclose this specific "right of reproduction?"