Gary Arseneau - Deception: Are These Really Rodins?

"DECLARATION OF AUTHENTICITY" FOR "HAND OF RODIN: HOLDING A TORSO"

In this "declaration" Dr. Schaff states: 

"Hand of Rodin Holding a Torso (the torso, a cast of an original work by Auguste Rodin: the hand of Auguste Rodin on his deathbed. Inscribed on wrist: A Rodin." 

Dr. Schaff continues by stating: 

"I have personally examined this work of art and affirm that it conforms with minor variations, to other examples of the composition and to the studio practices of Auguste Rodin."

Now contrast Dr. Schaff assertions that this "Hand of Rodin Holding a Torso" plaster is "original work by Auguste Rodin" with page 637 in the 1976 Sculpture of Auguste Rodin by John Tancock. John Tancock writes: 

"Three weeks before Rodin’s death, Paul Cruet, who was largely responsible at that time for making Rodin’s molds, took this cast of his right hand. Into it was inserted a cast of a small torso by Rodin, Small Torso A, one of the innumerable small fragments possibly connected with The Gates of Hell (no. 1). The torso has since been cast separately. This composite work, made from a life cast and an original work, which pays homage to Rodin the sculptor."

 This plaster was "not signed or inscribed."

Early in Auguste Rodin’s career his Age of Bronze "bronze" was critizied by some critics as being cast from life despite his denials. So on his deathbed a stroke-ridden invalid Auguste Rodin’s hand is subsequently cast in plaster and combined with one of his original plaster sculptures and eighty-four years later is promoted in Dr. Schaff’s "declaration" as a "cast of an original work by Auguste Rodin" and inscribed with his signature: "A Rodin."

The same unethical practice of casting from life Auguste Rodin fought so hard to deny about his art, is now attributed directly to him with a counterfeit "A Rodin" signature applied to create the illusion he approved the entire process when he obviously did not.