Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Lausanne
Man with Serpent, Auguste Rodin
An anonymous donor has given the Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts in Lausanne the only bronze cast of Auguste Rodin’s Man with Serpent (1887). The sculpture has not been seen in public since 1914, when it was sold at auction after the death of the original owner, Antoni Roux, Rodin’s friend and patron. The bronze will be lent to the renovated Musée Rodin in Paris next year before going on display in the Musée Cantonal’s new building when it opens in 2019.
The sculpture is the fourth by Rodin to enter the museum’s collection. Bernard Fibicher, the director of the Musée Cantonal, says the acquisition is particularly significant because “it is the third piece [in the collection] that relates to Rodin’s magnum opus, The Gates of Hell. It’s also a unique work: only one version was produced at the request of the [original] buyer.”
Getty Research Institute, Los Angeles
Annette Michelson’s archive
The art and film critic Annette Michelson, who co-founded the journal October, has donated her archive to the Getty Research Institute, including
correspondence and research dating to 1950. The institute also purchased two works by Robert Morris from her collection: Blind Time (1973), a drawing dedicated to the critic, and the portfolio Earth Projects (1969), ten colour lithographs of proposed land art works.
Victoria and Albert Museum, London, and Scottish National Gallery, Edinburgh
Neoclassical sculpture, Lorenzo Bartolini
The Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) and National Galleries of Scotland raised £523,800 to buy The Campbell Sisters Dancing a Waltz (around 1821) by the Italian neoclassical sculptor Lorenzo Bartolini. The work, which had been under a temporary UK export bar, is on view at the V&A until 20 November. The V&A and the Scottish National Gallery will exchange it every seven years after 2020.