Stolen Rodin Sculpture Returned to Owner After 25 Years

The sculpture “Young Girl with Serpent” by Auguste Rodin was stolen in 1991. The art thieves paid the housekeeper of a Los Angeles art collector $5,000 for a copy of the house keys. As a result several art pieces valued at about $1 million were looted from the mansion, says BBC.

The other stolen works included another Rodin sculpture, “The Eternal Spring,” and an early sketch of the artist’s most famous work, “The Kiss.” The location of these two art pieces is still unknown.

“Young Girl with Serpent,” estimated to be worth around $100,000, turned up in public for the first time after it was stolen at Christie’s auction house in 2011. It took four years to negotiate its return to the owner. Only after the involvement of Art Recovery International, a company that deals with similar cases, was the art piece returned to the owner. According to the agreement with the owner’s insurance company, the sculpture will be sold at an auction later this year.

{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Auguste-Rodin_01.jpg”, “text”: “«Young Girl with Serpent»”},
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Auguste-Rodin_02.jpg”, “text”: “«The Kiss»”},
{“img”: “/wp-content/uploads/2015/07/Auguste-Rodin_03.jpg”, “text”: “«The Eternal Spring»”}