Expert in 19th century sculpturee century, Amélie Simier has just arrived at the head of the Rodin Museum, after having directed the museum of another sculptor, Bourdelle – the two artists having first maintained a working relationship before a long friendship. The museum and its flowering garden will reopen to the public on May 19, with a Picasso-Rodin exhibition, a complementary theme of which will be presented at the Picasso Museum in Paris. Everything is ready, hanging on the picture rails, and the museum is about to emerge from months of torpor. “With the imposed gauge of 8 square meters per person, fifty visitors will be able to see the exhibition at the same time”, underlines the new director.
Inaugurated in 1919 in the Biron hotel, in the 7e district of Paris, the Rodin Museum has the particularity of being a national museum, under the supervision of the Ministry of Culture, which is 100% self-financing. The artist gave his goods and works to the State in 1916 and the museum inherited the statute of beneficiary from the sculptor. He is the holder of the moral right over his work and, as such, can make and sell original editions of bronzes, produced from the molds or original models bequeathed by the artist.
Yes “Rodin was a visionary in providing the means to self-finance the museum”, as Amélie Simier points out, the year 2020 has proven to be financially difficult due to the Covid-19 pandemic. According to the annual report, attendance fell by 73%, to 147,846 in Paris, and to 5,217 in the second site, in Meudon (Hauts-de-Seine), in the Villa des Brillants, where the workshop was located. by Rodin.
Financial contributions
“The ticket office represents, in a normal year, nearly 50% of revenue”, recalls Amélie Simier. And, as at the Louvre or the Musée d’Orsay, three quarters of visitors come from abroad. However, the extra-European public disappeared in 2020 and European travelers have become scarce. This resulted in a loss of ticket revenue of 2 million euros. Also due to Covid-19, even if some events were held at the start of the year, such as the Dior parade in the garden, income from space rentals fell by 64%.
Auguste Rodin had planned a maximum of twelve copies per work, one of them systematically remaining in the museum’s collections.
The store’s physical sales slumped, but online sales increased 4%. Amélie Simier is delighted, however, that patrons have continued to support the museum. The financial support of the CCR Re reinsurance fund and AM Conseil made it possible to acquire a national treasure, the original assembly of the sculpture I am beautiful. Another important financial contribution: two monumental works resulting from the quota of original bronze editions still possible, the Monument to Victor Hugo as well as Defense, were produced to join the Louvre Abu Dhabi collections.
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