The Musée Rodin Signs Onto a Major Partnership With China to Create an Arts Center Dedicated to the Artist in China’s Technology Capital

Paris’s Musée Rodin has announced that it will give namesake to
a Chinese art center dedicated to Rodin in Shenzhen, the nearest
mainland city to Hong Kong. The decision to partner with the
Chinese government’s project while authorities threaten to crack
down on the pro-democracy movement over the border is bound to
raise eyebrows.

The news was shared about the partnership on Monday, October 7,
during a Franco-Chinese cultural forum in the city of Nice. The
Paris institution dedicated to the famous sculptor Auguste Rodin
will sell over 50 bronze editions to the new institution and
loaning another 50 for at least five years. The center will be
built sometime in the next two or three years, according to a
spokesperson. The shell expansion, which will be called
the Rodin Art Center is being funded by the Chinese state.

“Since 2014, the Musée Rodin has been approached many times by
Chinese cities or Chinese companies to form a Rodin collection in
China. But often these companies had very commercial projects with
not enough cultural, educational, or philanthropic projects, and so
the Rodin Museum refused them,” the institution tells artnet News
in an official statement.

Rodin enjoys a huge profile in China, on par with Honoré de
Balzac and Victor Hugo, according to the spokesperson. The planned
museum will no doubt highlight Rodin’s interest in Chinese art,
which he also collected. He also inspired significant Chinese
sculptors, including Sui Jianguo.

The full cost and a specific opening year of the Musée Rodin
China have not been confirmed, but the museum says that more
details will emerge during President Emmanuel Macron’s planned trip
to China next month. The decision to move forward on the
project, which was first floated last June, comes after officials
at the Paris museum toured potential cities searching for an
outpost. Besides Shenzhen in the Guangdong province, they had
visited Hangzhou in Zhejiang province, and Xiong’an New Area in
Hebei province.

“Shenzhen seemed to us to be the one with the most important
assets: a political will in favour of culture and education, 
very professional and efficient teams, both in the city and in the
Futian district, and a multicultural character and diversity of
ethnic groups,” the Paris institution wrote to artnet News in a
statement. It added that the proposed place on Antuoshan hill in
Shenzhen recalls the hill Rodin lived in Meudon (the site of their
second location).

The museum says that, back in June when the project was first in
the works, it was “cautious.” However, following the guarantee
provided by the Chinese ministry of culture as well as the Chinese
embassy in France, the Musée Rodin gave a green light to the
project and will loan more than 100
pieces by Rodin, including many of iconic works,
like The Gates of Hell, The Age of Bronze,
and Balzac. Previously, it had been reported
that the Chinese sister site will exhibit the works for six
years.

France is at the forefront of Western museums’ expansion in
China. The Centre Pompidou is set to finally open a satellite in
Shanghai after years of trying on November 8. And Shenzhen is
already home to a design museum created in partnership with the
Victorian and Albert Museum in London.

The Musée Rodin was founded to house a collection that Rodin
donated to the French state after his death. It includes his own
sculptures and drawings, as well as work produced by his
contemporaries. As well as the Musée Rodin in central Paris,
the artist’s country home in Meudon is also a museum. The two
venues attract around 700,000 visitors a year.

The post The Musée Rodin Signs Onto a Major Partnership With
China to Create an Arts Center Dedicated to the Artist in China’s
Technology Capital appeared first on artnet News.