What Happened To Rodin's Eternal Spring From Antiques Roadshow?
Auguste Rodin, who lived from 1840 to 1917, is considered one of the greatest sculptors in history and is probably best known for the iconic sculpture, The Thinker. With that kind of massive artistic clout, you might not expect a work of his to just pop up on Antiques Roadshow.
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00:00Auguste Rodin, who lived from 1840 to 1917, is considered one of the greatest sculptors
00:06in history, and is probably best known for the iconic sculpture, The Thinker.
00:11With that kind of massive artistic clout, you might not expect a work of his to just
00:15pop up on Antiques Roadshow.
00:18Wow!
00:19Collector James Kenner didn't know what to expect when he brought his bronze sculpture
00:23to Antiques Roadshow in Fort Worth, Texas, in 2016.
00:27The appraiser, Eric Silver, initially doubted it was an authentic Rodin, but after a close
00:33inspection, he realized he was looking at the real deal.
00:36He estimated that if it went to auction after authentication, it could bring in as much
00:40as $500,000.
00:42Kenner later told the Dallas Observer,
00:44"...I was amazed, completely blown away."
00:47Silver was also blown away.
00:49In the 21 years of the Roadshow, you've probably come in with the only authentic Rodin bronze
00:54ever to come into the show.
00:56So what happened after the cameras went off?
00:58Jenner returned the sculpture to his parents, who sold it at auction, but getting from the
01:02show to the sale was no easy feat.
01:05Antiques Roadshow revealed more about the nature of the piece.
01:08Rodin created the bronze named Eternel Printemps, or Eternal Spring or Springtime, in 1884.
01:14The piece is related to his unfinished masterwork, The Gates of Hell, and he cast it in bronze
01:20between 1898 and 1918, according to the Rodin Museum.
01:25According to Meredith Muley of Heritage Auctions in Dallas, Texas, who helped the Kenner family
01:29sell the piece, there are around 80 or so known casts of the sculpture.
01:34The Rodin bronze that appeared on Roadshow had been in James Kenner's family for years,
01:39starting with his great-aunt, who passed it on to his grandmother, and then finally to
01:43his father.
01:45Kenner told the Dallas Observer,
01:46"...my parents are still alive, but I had expressed an interest in the Rodin.
01:50I thought it was a very beautiful piece, so I would like to have that."
01:54Everyone agreed, but Kenner's parents instead decided to sell it and planned to pass the
01:59profits towards a very comfortable retirement.
02:02Going from Antiques Roadshow to the auction block wasn't an immediate process, either.
02:07It began with Meredith Muley contacting the Committee Auguste Rodin in France, which is
02:13the organization that certifies whether a Rodin is authentic or not.
02:16They brought the bronze to New York, where someone from the committee came to inspect
02:20the piece, spending several hours examining it.
02:23"...it had to be photographed, it had to be measured to the hundredth of a centimeter
02:29to exact same size."
02:31A few weeks later, the Kenners got their answer.
02:34It was authentic, from the Second State, Third Reduction, and cast during the artist's life,
02:40which made it more valuable.
02:41The Kenners sold the Rodin bronze at a Christie's auction in London, bringing in around $380,000.
02:48James Kenner told the Dallas Observer,
02:50I didn't expect a number like that at all.
02:52I was thinking maybe a few thousand.
02:55You can probably see it on television.
02:57It was a little bit of disbelief there at that amount."
02:59This is among the greatest discoveries I made at a roadshow."