Three months of quarantine risk to destroy Paris Rodin Museum, which already has missed this year, about €4 million with fees. To cover the deficit, the Museum is ready to sell 130 sculptures by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917). Says the correspondent of “Kommersant” in France Alexey Tarhanov.Paris Musee Rodin, located in the 7th arrondissement on the street Varennes, one of the most popular museums in France. It queues of tourists, the Parisians themselves — for a beautiful garden, turned into the exhibition of sculpture under the open sky. Since 2012 it is run by a Frenchwoman Katrin Savio, which managed to renovate the building and the Park and organize multiple expositions. The curators of the Museum insist that the sculptor remains our contemporary and relevant artist, not just a character from art history.But this year, its modernity emphasized in unexpected ways. Through more than a hundred years, the sculptor handed the Museum a helping hand. At Musee Rodin, its buildings, gardens, storerooms — the special status, unique in the French Museum system. It is connected with the history of its creation. City Palace, where he is called “Hotel Biron” — named after its second owner of Marshal Biron. By the beginning of the last century, the endless change of owners, starting from embassies (including Russian) to the orphanage, he was almost killed. Authorities were going to demolish the dilapidated building in the garden, overgrown to the state of wild forest, but yet gave workshops under artists including Jean Cocteau, Henri Matisse and his wife of Rainer Maria Rilke sculpture Clara Westhoff. Rilke was Rodin’s Secretary, and on his advice, the sculptor also made a few areas at the ground floor — he liked that the finished work could be put in the garden.When artists began to kick, Rilke told Rodin to appeal to the city authorities. He was asked to leave the house for lifetime use, promising instead to give the state “casts, marble and bronze, drawings and the collection of antiquities”. In 1908 the request of the sculptor is satisfied, in 1917, he died in wealth and honour, and in 1919 was born the Musee Rodin. But economical of power left him in the care of the hero. The artist bequeathed to the Museum not only cash, not just collection (about 7 thousand Rodin sculptures, 9 thousand sheets of it graphics, 10 thousand photographic prints and 6,400 items of ancient art), but, more importantly, the copyright on their works.The state does not subsidize the Rodin Museum, he lives at his own expense and until recently, successfully making ends meet. Primarily due to the sale of tickets. Every year here comes more than 550 thousand people. Last year it brought in €3.8 million for the Museum exhibition and taking them abroad — not only fame, but also a source of income. Finally, it providedmakes it possible to rent the Park and part of the building for presentations, weddings, anniversaries and fashion shows of the fashion brands, among which in recent years was, for example, Dior. The income of the Museum was placed on the exchange. All this time overturned the quarantine. The Museum hopes to cover the deficit of the sale of the artistic heritage of Paris, the right to which, recall, gave him the sculptor himself.The news that this year the Museum is going to offer customers 130 of the sculptures was greeted with horror. Catherine Sevio had to make a special explanation of the situation. No, nobody will be able to buy, load into the truck and take it standing in the garden of “the Thinker” or “Citizens of Calais”. None of the works included actually in the Museum Fund, will not leave exposure, because it refers to a national treasure of France. But MIEE Rodin has the right to replicate the sculptures and stores models, which were made of casting. As specified in the Museum, there are about 120. By law, 1956, each sculpture can be cast in 12 copies with the status of the original. Previously, the number of castings was limited only by the capabilities of the model, in particular, Rodin’s “the Kiss” there are more than 300 “originals”.The Director of the Museum said that the sale of the sculptures being the Foundation of the Museum. The only difference is that this year, the Museum is forced to increase its catalog with the usual 40 to 130 samples. The most famous of Rodin’s work has exhausted the legal number of copies. From the works that can be seen today in the garden, the possibility of multiple replays was left at the “Gates of hell”, but it is hard to imagine that someone will be able to purchase the seven-meter composition. Sale the Museum plans to organize with the help of the world’s contemporary art galleries, has already cooperated with the Museum, including new York’s Gagosian.
