A rediscovered Auguste Rodin marble sculpture, kept in plain sight for decades atop a piano in a French family home, has fetched €1.1 million ($1.2 million) at auction last weekend. The piece, Le Désespoir (ca. 1892–93), had gone unnoticed by its owners until auctioneer Aymeric Rouillac recognised its significance during a routine appraisal.
Measuring just under a foot tall, the white marble figure depicts a nude woman curled in anguish—a study of emotional tension rendered with Rodin’s signature rawness. Bidding at Rouillac’s “Garden Party” sale, held at the Château de Villandry, lasted 20 tense minutes before a West Coast banker secured the work, far surpassing its €700,000 high estimate.
The piece first sold to financier Alexandre Blanc before appearing at a 1906 Paris auction (price: 4,100 francs). Later owners included dealer Eugène Finschhof and collector Paul Chevallier. Its reemergence echoes Rodin’s market trajectory—once controversial, now revered
The sculpture’s 1990 Sotheby’s counterpart hammered at $797,500—a sum that now seems quaint against today’s soaring Rodin market. Two definitive marble iterations anchor major collections: Zurich’s Kunsthaus guards Emil Bührle’s acquisition, while Philadelphia displays theirs with quiet pride beside Impressionist masterpieces.
Paris, 1840: a sculptor’s son arrives destined to shatter conventions. Auguste Rodin didn’t merely chip away at marble—he assaulted centuries of academic pretence. Where peers crafted flawless limbs, he left fingerprints in clay; where tradition demanded allegorical grace, he delivered The Kiss’s feverish embrace and Balzac’s brooding intensity. His chisel worshipped not beauty, but truth—the shudder of muscle, the weight of thought, the archaeology of human emotion laid bare in bronze and stone.
Born in 1840, Auguste Rodin revolutionised sculpture by rejecting polished idealism in favour of emotional realism. Though The Thinker (1880) remains his most iconic work, Le Désespoir exemplifies his genius for capturing psychological depth in stone. Seven of his works have sold above $10 million, including a 2016 record $20.4 million for L’éternel Printemps.
The Musée Rodin will open its first international outpost in Shanghai this September, capitalising on China’s growing appetite for Western masterpieces. Initially planned for Shenzhen, the relocation reflects Shanghai’s thriving art market—and Rodin’s undiminished relevance.
Market irony: As Rouillac noted, the sculpture changed hands between financiers in both 1906 and 2025. “Despair,” he quipped, “inspires bankers.”
Rouillac was founded in 1983 and operates salesrooms in Paris, Vendôme, and Tours.
Provenance – Auguste Rodin, Paris; -probablement M. Alexandre Blanc, Paris par l’intermédiaire de Léopold Blondin, octobre 1892 ; probablement vente publique, “collection Alexandre Blanc”, Etude Lair-Dubreuil, Paris-Galerie Georges Petit, 3 avril 1906 lot 179 (4,100F) ; probablement M. Eugène Finschhof, Paris (marchand / 1853-1926) (acquis à la vente ci-dessus). Me Paul Chevallier, Paris; par descendance; collection privée, France.