(Paris) A Thinker bronze sculpture by Auguste Rodin, a masterpiece by the famous French sculptor prized by collectors, will be auctioned at Christie’s Paris on June 30, we learned from the auction house on Thursday.
Posted yesterday at 10:11 a.m.
About forty copies of the famous “thinker” – a man seated in a pensive attitude with the lower part of his face resting on his right hand – were made during the sculptor’s lifetime and until 1969.
The copy on sale in Paris, with a black and brown patina, is estimated at a price of between 9 and 14 million euros (between $12.3 million and $19.2 million) and says “Size of the door “. It was cast around 1928 by the Alexis Rudier foundry, known for creating some of Rodin’s most famous bronzes.
It is part of a private collection entitled “Le Grand Style” from a Parisian apartment designed by the famous decorator Alberto Pinto and which will be put on sale in its entirety on the same date by Christie’s.
Designed by Rodin around 1880 as part of The Gates of Hell based on the work of Dante, the Thinker became an autonomous work as early as 1904, when it was first exhibited at the Paris Salon.
The Rodin Museum took over the edition after the death of the sculptor (1917) to have 26 posthumous examples produced by several foundries, in two successive periods: 1919-1945 and 1954-1969.
Like Mona Lisa of Leonardo da Vinci, of The birth of Venus of Botticelli or Shout by Edward Munch, The Thinker by Rodin is one of the most famous works in the history of art.
It is exhibited in its monumental version at Columbia University in New York, in front of the Palace of the Legion of Honor in San Francisco or at the Ca’Pesaro Museum in Venice.
The statue which will be auctioned at Christie’s Paris will be the subject of a world tour from Friday and will be exhibited in particular in New York and Hong Kong, before being presented in Paris from June 23.
The latest record set by the auction of a Thinker by Rodin was worth $15.2 million in 2013 by Sotheby’s in New York, according to artnet.