Casting of Rodin’s Thinker fetches 10.7 mln euros at Paris auction

A casting of Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker” sculpture, one of the most iconic works of art in the world, sold for 10.7 million euros ($11.14 million) at a Paris auction on Thursday.

The auction house, Christie’s, had estimated the casting, one of roughly 40 authentic outstanding ones, would fetch between nine to 14 million euros. The record for a Rodin “Thinker” was set at a Sotheby’s auction in New York in 2013, when one sold for $15.3 million.

When conceived by Rodin in 1880 in its original size of approximately 70 cm “The Thinker” was called “The Poet” and was designed to be the crowning element of “The Gates of Hell”, another major work by the French sculptor.

The sculpture initially represented Dante, the medieval Italian poet and author of the Divine Comedy, leaning forward to observe the circles of Hell, while meditating on his work.

The copy sold this Thursday by Christie’s was the size of the original model.