One Thinker sculpture by Auguste Rodin (1840-1917), a key work by the famous French sculptor prized by collectors, will be auctioned at Christie’s Paris on June 30, 2022, the auction house announced on Thursday April 7.
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 put up for sale in Paris, with a black and brown patina, says ” Size of the door”, is estimated to have a price between 9 and 14 million euros. 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.
Conceived by Rodin around 1880 as an integral part of the Gates of Hell according to the work of Dante, the Thinker became an autonomous work as early as 1904, when it was exhibited for the first time 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 April 8 and will be exhibited in particular in New York and Hong Kong, before being presented in Paris from June 23, 2022.
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.