Bronze sculpture by Rodin's lover found in abandoned Paris flat sells for €3.1 million

Telegraph

17-02-2025

A bronze sculpture by a French artist discovered by chance in an abandoned Paris flat sold for €3.1 million at auction on Sunday.
Forgotten for more than a century, the artwork by Camille Claudel was found during a routine estate inventory of a flat near the Eiffel Tower following the death of its owner.
The apartment had been abandoned for 15 years, was 'plunged into darkness' and full of dust, Matthieu Semont, the auctioneer who made the discovery last September, said.
But when he lifted a sheet and found the bronze sculpture, Mr Semont said he recognised it immediately as Claudel's 'L'ge Mûr' (The Mature Age) and was overcome with emotion.
The sculpture, which exists in several copies, is thought to evoke the artist's separation with her mentor and lover Auguste Rodin, who was more than 20 years her senior.
Mr Semont told Agence France-Presse: 'It's more of an encounter than a discovery, it's magical, it brought tears to my eyes. This bronze, which had been lost for over a century, is of astonishing quality.'
Measuring 33in tall, the sculpture depicts a young woman on her knees, arms outstretched towards an ageing man who is being led away by a second older female figure.
It dates between 1892 and 1898 and depicts Claudel's 'descent into hell' with Rodin 'who never stopped loving her and wept' when he discovered the sculpture, Mr Semont added.
Claudel destroyed much of her work before her brother sent her to a psychiatric hospital in 1913 where she remained for 30 years until her death in 1943.
Originally estimated to be worth between €1.5 million and €2 million (£1.2 million and £1.7 million), the sculpture sold for €3.1 million after a tense bidding war between six buyers.
The sale, which was held at an auction house in the city of Orleans, started at a bid of €1 million in front of an audience of 350 people. After 20 minutes, the winning bid was announced to applause and a standing ovation for the auctioneer.
'It was a joyful sale, people came out of passion,' Mr Semont told Le Parisien. 'I had never bid at this level and my heart was pounding; I was very emotional.'
The identity of the buyer was not revealed.
Sunday's auction marked the second highest price for a work by Claudel, after the 2013 sale of 'La Valse' at a Sotheby's auction in London, where it fetched €5.2 million.
The artist's life has been told several times on the big screen, including in a critically acclaimed 1988 biopic featuring Isabelle Adjani and a 2013 film in which Juliette Binoche depicted Claudel's abandonment in an asylum.