Art: Kiss

Last week U. S. art dealers were surprised to learn that the Baltimore Municipal Museum of Art announced the loan for exhibition of the second casting of famed French Sculptor François Auguste Rodin’s three-foot bronze, “The Kiss.” Of this statue there are many marble replicas and one bronze original; the second bronze casting, given by the sculptor to a friend, had been believed lost for many years. “Where,” dealers asked one another, “did it come from?”

They learned that it had been loaned to the Museum by noted art patron and collector Jacob Epstein*; of Baltimore, onetime street peddler, now a millionaire. His agents had discovered its whereabouts. He bought it at the sale of the owner’s estate in France, brought it to the U. S. in August without attracting publicity, without even disclosing how much he had paid for it.

*Not to be confused with famed Sculptor Jacob Epstein (see below).