Gary Arseneau - Deception: Are These Really Rodins?

WHAT IS A "REPRODUCTION?" 

In Ralph Mayer’s A Dictionary of Art Terms & Techniques the term "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." In the J. Paul Getty Trust’’s "www.getty.edu" website, under their Getty Vocabulary Program the term "reproduction" is defined as: 

"Use with regard to copies of art images, art objects, or other valued images or objects, made without intent to deceive; with regard to art images, includes photographic reproductions; implies more precise and faithful imitation than does the term "copies (derivative objects)." Where the intent is to deceive, use "forgeries" or counterfeits." 

Based on the prior two documented and independent definitions for the term "reproduction", anything reproduced from Auguste Rodin’s art would be a "reproduction." Anything posthumously reproduced directly from Auguste Rodin’s art would absolutely have to be a "reproduction" since it obviously would have to been "done by someone other than the creator of the original" since obviously Auguste Rodin would have still been dead at the time. 

The MacLaren Art Centre’s "www.plaster2bronze.com" website writes: 

"These {foundry plasters} are casts that replicate either the exhibition or reserve plasters and provide the first step in the process of translating a sculpture from plaster to bronze. The accuracy and detailing of the foundry plasters is essential. This helps to ensure that the finished work captures and conveys with as much fidelity as possible the form, dimensions, and nuances the artist intended."