An American artist and art scholar is blowing the whistle on three Edgar Degas sculptures on display at Auckland Art Gallery in the Degas to Dali exhibition.
Gary Arsenau says the bronze sculptures, Arabesque Penchee , The Tub and Study for the Little Fourteen Year Old Dancer, on loan from the National Galleries of Scotland, aren't the work of Degas. Mr Arseneau is matter of fact: "The dead don't create art," he told The Aucklander.
The creation of the bronze sculptures is well-documented. When Degas died in 1917, more than 150 of his sculptures - made in wax, clay, and plastiline - were found deteriorating in his studio.
A year later, his heirs commissioned Paris foundry, A.A. Hebrard et Cie, to make casts of 70-plus of the smaller figures. Albino Palazzolo, a Hebrard employee, made moulds from the original sculptures. These were then used to cast master sculptures in bronze.
Says Mr Arseneau: "All bronzes attributed to Edgar Degas are nothing more than second- to third-generation or more removed, posthumously forged anytime between 1919 to 1956 or later, with counterfeit Degas signatures inscribed to create the illusion that he created and approved them. They didn't reproduce his work. They reproduced their reproduction of his work with their fingerprints on it."
But is it really forgery? The gallery states in its programme for Degas to Dali that the Degas "wax figurines ... were cast in bronze by founder Hebrard". It makes it plain that the bronze works are not originals.
Gallery director Chris Saines says the gallery acknowledges the sculptures were cast after the artist's death. "The Degas bronzes in the exhibition ... were cast posthumously by his estate from wax models created by the artist," says Mr Saines. "The authenticity of these works, given the well-known and highly controlled circumstances of their production, has been widely accepted by art museums such as the Musee du Louvre and the Metropolitan Museum of Art."
Mr Arseneau says that's not good enough. He says Degas never would have wanted his works cast in bronze - he worked in mixed media.
"It is a widespread practice by museums around the world to pass [these] off as legitimate sculptures. They've suspended disbelief, they have many different explanations," he says.
Mr Arseneau disagrees with the use of the word "reproduction". "In America, most museums are members of the Association of the Art Museum Directors. They endorse the College Art Association of ethical guidelines of sculptural reproductions which, in part, states: 'any transfer into new material, unless specifically condoned by the artist, is to be considered inauthentic or counterfeit and should not be acquired or exhibited as a work of art'," he says. "Anything not condoned by the guy can't be his work."
He has challenged a number of museums and galleries. "I am not popular," he admits. The Aucklander last talked to Mr Arseneau last year in "Dr Seuss Keeps Coming". Then, he said publishers of Dr Seuss artworks, on show at the Lonely Dog Gallery, incorrectly labelled pieces as "serigraphs"and "lithographs", which he says must come from the artist's own hand. "They play fast and loose with terminology because it's profitable," he claimed.
But the National Galleries of Scotland defends the Degas exhibits.
"The bronzes in the exhibition are all from the 74 bronzes posthumously cast from wax models, with the agreement of Degas' heirs, with the participation of Degas' sculptor friend Albert Bartholome. Each bronze, catalogued as Degas, was carefully produced in a limited, numbered edition and are in major public and private collections throughout the world.
"They are not fakes: for that .. .they would have had to have been cast from fake originals, which they were not."
But Mr Arseneau says it is unfortunate this type of thing has become accepted. ``The public has no idea they are in the presence of something the artist himself has never seen.''
``I think whether it's the American public or the New Zealand public, they have the right to know what they're paying to see. It's full and honest disclosure,'' he says.
Degas to Dali has been widely praised, and runs until June 10.
REAL DEAL
- Degas never made a bronze sculpture. The artist used mixed media that he told a friend "no one will ever see".
- Degas did not sign any of his sculptures, yet the ones on display carry the signature stamped on by the foundry.
- Sculptures are not cast from the original Degas work, but from a mold of the original.
What do you think? Does it matter? letters@theaucklander.co.nz