Gary Arseneau - Deception: Are These Really Rodins?

GRUPPO MONDIALE EST.

On the Gruppo Mondiale Est.’s "www.rodin-art.com" website, they provide "provenance" for their "Rodin plasters" as: "1) Alexis Rudier Foundeur, Paris; 2)Eugene Rudier, Paris, 3) Georges Rudier, Paris; 4) Private collection (France) to Gruppo Mondiale Est." 

Aren’t they some of the same foundries (Alexis Rudier and Georges Rudier), the Musee Rodin sent their "plaster reproductions" of "Auguste Rodin’s original plasters" to, for casting "bronze reproductions?" The answer is yes. 

List of Foundries (lifetime casts & reproductions) 

1880-1883 Gruet Jeune 
1881-1904 F. Rudier 
April 1882-Jan 1883 F. Laird 
25 April 1882 Eugene Gonon 
1884-1889 Pierre Bingen 
1891-1895 Adolpe Gruet 
1895 to mid-1898 J.B. Griffoul 
1895-1898 Thiebaut Freres 
1895 Societe Nationale des Bronzes, formerly J. Peterman 
1896-1901 Leon Perzinka 
1887-1894 Griffoul, associated with Lorge 
4 April 1898-1908 Thiebaut Freres, Fumiere et Gavignot 
June 1898 to March 1899 A. (Auguste) Griffoul et Cie 
24 October 1898, MM. Fumiere et Gavignot 
1899 Camille Groult, heir to Dargenton et Groult 
1901 L. Gasne 
1902 E. Gruet Jeune 
1902 G. Sevin 
1903 Pierre Griffoul 
1904 Philippet 
1906-1908 H. Gonot et E. Joret 
1910 C. Durant 
1912 Valsuani 
1912-1913 Phillippe Montagutelli 
1913 Rene Fulda 
1898-1918 Le Blanc-Barbedienne 
1902-1952 Alexis Rudier 

1917 Auguste Rodin dies 

1952- Georges Rudier 

1964-1978 Susse 

1969- Godard 

1973- Coubertin 

Source: Monique Laurent, 1981 Rodin Rediscovered (pages 285-293)

The Gruppo Mondiale Est., located in "Via Roma, 74 33050 Trivignano Udinese, Udine Italy, is the source of the majority of the "plasters" and "bronzes", donated to the MacLaren Art Centre Collection, that are currently exhibited in the "From Plaster to Bronze: The Sculpture of Auguste Rodin" exhibit at the Royal Ontario Museum. 

Aside from Musee Rodin’s admission of sending plaster reproductions to those prior mentioned foundries, there are other "red flags" to Gruppo Mondiale Est. claim that they have "Rodin’s original plasters." What are some of those "red flags?" 

One of those "red flags" is Gruppo Mondiale Est. listing "Alexis Rudier" and "Eugene Rudier" separately when actually they were the same foundry using his father’s name "Alexis Rudier" that was run by Eugene Rudier from 1902 till his death in 1952. 

On page 290 in the 1981 Rodin Rediscovered exhibition catalogue’s "Rodin and His Founders" essay, the former Musee Rodin curator Monique Laurent writes: 

"Studying of the existing {Musee Rodin} archives brings out a curious paradox: not a single document is found from Alexis Rudier, so that this prestigious mark, long considered Rodin’s ideal standard in bronze and symbolizing for amateurs the old cast acknowledged and endorsed by him, is actually a label of little significance. ...the Musee Rodin owns no proof of collaboration between Alexis and Rodin. Even more, his name appears for the first time on 24 March 1902, five years after his {Francois} death, with the formula "Alexis Rudier, Veuve Alexis Rudier et Fils Successeur... starting in 1902, the uninterrupted production of the firm concerned in reality the activity of Alexis’s son Eugene." ...the casts of Alexis Rudier {foundry} are in the great majority posthumous since the mark was used for at least thirty-five years after the sculptor’s death... Georges Rudier, Eugene’s nephew, took over the directing of the business and made casts under his own name ...sometime around 1952 or a "year or two later." 

Gruppo Mondiale Est. commingling of dates, facts and terms brought to memory a 1995 telephone conversation this writer had with the Remington Museum Director Lowell McAllister. In that conversation he told about the inside joke on all the posthumous reproduction/fake "Remington bronzes." It was that those individuals deceptively selling them to unsuspecting victims would promote them as being from the original "Henry Bonnard Bronze Company." The joke is the "Henry Bonnard" is actually two separate people Mr. Henry and Mr. Bonnard. It’s really the "Henry-Bonnard Bronze Foundry." 

When Gruppo Mondiale Est. was directly asked to provide complete documentation for the provenance of these plasters, their representative Colin Mills responded in January 27, 2001 letter to this writer by stating: "We have officially recognized "provenance" for our pieces, although for legal reasons it can only be disclosed to certified attorneys." 

Despite Gruppo Mondiale Est. representative’s "legal reasons" not to fully disclose the provenance for their "Rodin plasters", what other historical and published documentation might give doubt to their claim that they have "Rodin’s original plasters?"