It is an exceptional piece that will be offered at auction on April 25 in Angers. The Chauviré-Courrant Auction House will sell an unprecedented copy of Auguste Rodin’s kiss, an estimated bronze sculpture between 300,000 and 500,000 euros. This work, melted in 1904, had been commanded by the Jockey Club of Buenos Aires to be offered to the world fencing champion Lucien Mérignac on the occasion of his marriage.
A cast during Rodin’s lifetime
According to a press release from the sales house, this test is a “unprecedented and rare” room, melted during the lifetime of Rodin. The sculpture, signed under the left buttock of the woman, is among the first three fonts of the 60 cm model, also called “2nd reduction”, made between July and September 1904. Its authenticity was confirmed by the Rodin Committee in Paris, specifies Raphaël Current, auctioneer in charge of the sale.
From Argentina to France
According to Le Figaro, Lucien Mérignac, invited to lead the weapons room of the Jockey Club of Buenos Aires, returned to France in 1916 to teach the Military Prytaneous Prytaneous (Sarthe). After his death in 1941, his second wife, also a fencing teacher, resells sculpture to an antique dealer in the Angevin region. In the 1950s, the current owner, then a student of the latter, acquired the work knowingly of its historical value.
A centerpiece for the April auctions
The owner decided to separate from this replica from the kiss, exhibited for the first time at the Rodin museum in 1919. The work will be the star of a series of sales that will start on Tuesday April 22, alongside 600 pieces of golden currencies, paintings, furniture and art objects from the high era, as well as an important collection of crystals from the 19th century.
