THE DEBATE OVER what is original isn't restricted to contemporary art. Just consider the case of the late sculptor Auguste Rodin.
He died in 1917, yet thanks to permission granted to the Musée Rodin in Paris, dozens of bronze casts of Rodin's work, including the "The Thinker," have been created in the years since then, sold at auction, and displayed in museums as original Rodins.
Gary Arseneau, a Florida printmaker angered by this practice, has spent a decade doggedly pursuing his argument that the bronze sculptures credited to the French master but cast long after his death are nothing so much as fakes.
Never mind that the Musee Rodin is authorized to make the casts, or that many of them have ended up in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection - one of Arseneau's frequent targets. What Arseneau finds troubling is that hundreds of thousands of people have viewed works in galleries on the assumption they were made by the sculptor himself, never realizing they were cast decades after Rodin's death.
Arseneau's views are clearly out-of-step with the art world; he has become the nemesis of curators around the world, and is disparaged by art museums as the "Rodin chaser." Some museums have even sent out preshow releases warning local media about Arseneau.
He believes, however, that art displayed as an original should have been created by the artist - and the same rules should apply to contemporary art. An artist needs to be involved in the hands-on creation of his or her work.
"Last time I checked," he said, "you needed to be on the field to score a touchdown."
