A small marble sculpture by French artist Auguste Rodin, which was long thought to be a copy, has fetched €860,000 at an auction in France, at the Château de Villandry (Indre-et-Loire), according to the website of the Rouillac auction house.
‘Le Désespoir’ (‘Despair’), a variation on the famous ‘Porte de l’Enfer’ (‘The Gates of Hell’), was produced around 1892. It depicts a woman hugging her knees and holding her foot.
It had disappeared after being sold at an auction in 1906, and its owners had it sitting on a piano in their home, believing it was a replica.
After a six-week investigation, they were informed of its authenticity.
French auctioneer Aymeric Rouillac told AFP that he went to the Comité Rodin in March and the body, considered to be the leading authority on the French sculptor, confirmed it was not a fake after much research and a genealogical survey.
Rouillac described the 28.5cm marble as an “extremely rare” find.
"We have rediscovered it," he added. And sold it for nearly one million dollars to an anonymous American buyer.
