A priceless artwork by globally-renowned artist Auguste Rodin is conspicuously missing, an enigma causing much distress in art circles. The acclaimed Glasgow Museums confirmed their inability to locate a sculpture, a plaster version of Les Bourgeois de Calais, dating back to 1901. Estimated at a staggering £3m, the artwork features amongst approximately 1,750 items presently recorded as missing or stolen.
The responsibility for the city’s museums is held by a charity known as Glasgow Life, which shed light on the matter, acknowledging that the sculpture was known to have suffered damage after its public display in the aftermath of World War Two. Nonetheless, its current status is disconcertingly listed as “unlocated”.
Rodin earned substantial fame for his sculpture, “The Thinker”. French law permitted him the liberty to recreate different versions of “Les Bourgeois” in both plaster and bronze. An imposing life-size bronze replica of the sculpture graces the gardens adjoining the Houses of Parliament in London, delighting passersby with its majestic presence.
A similar plaster version held the limelight in the Sculpture in the Open Air exhibition at Kelvingrove Park in 1949, jointly displayed with another of Rodin’s mesmerizing work, Saint jean de Baptiste. Unfortunately, Les Bourgeois suffered damage during the exhibition, and its whereabouts subsequently lost to time. The companion sculpture resides safely in storage at the Glasgow Museums Resource Centre.
The lament over the loss of precious artwork has resonated amongst art enthusiasts and critics. The Paris-based Comite Rodin, dedicated to promoting and cataloguing Rodin’s body of work, expressed deep disappointment, terming the loss as “utterly shameful.” Jerome Le Blay, the director of the Comite, stressed the significance of artwork, stating that each piece’s loss chips away at our collective human legacy.
Addressing this significant loss, Glasgow Life shared their efforts over the past two decades in conducting an inventory of items in their collection, including the recovery of previously lost objects. They assured that their techniques of recording, cataloguing, and preservation of the Glasgow Museums Collection has advanced significantly, leading to a more efficient collection management system.
Les Bourgeois de Calais, the vanished piece, powerfully depicts the tribulations of the French port’s residents under an 11-month English siege during the Hundred Years War in the late Middle Ages. The tale represented in the sculpture is of the selfless burghers (Les Bourgeois) who offered their lives for their town’s salvation.
