----- Original Message -----
From: Chantel Cummings <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Monday, May 24, 1999 11:51 AM
Subject: Recent letter to the editor


> HORSEYOURODINON
> I am writing in response to your article concerning the Cummer Museum's
> forthcoming exhibition of Auguste Rodin's Monument to Victor Hugo
> (Briefcases, May 4). The museum's director Kahren Arbitman is being
> deliberately misleading when she states that my way of thinking leads to
> the conclusion that all casts are reproductions. It is impossible to
> deny that, in the art world, there is a major distinction between life
> casts and posthumous casts that has significant aesthetic and financial
> ramifications. If this were as false as Arbitman implies, why did
> previous curators at the Cummer obtain a cast of the famous American
> sculptor Frederick Remington's statue "Bronco Busters" that was made
> under his direction during his lifetime, rather than one of the numerous
> - and considerably less-valuable - posthumous casts of that work?
>
> Both Chairman Preston Haskell and Vice-Chairman Sam Vickers of the
> Cummer's board of directors are noted local art collectors who were
> instrumental in firing me from my position as curator over the Rodin
> fracas. I challenge them to answer this question: Which would you prefer
> for your collection: a work that the artist produced during his or her
> lifetime or one that was made after he or she died? I very strongly
> doubt that either of them will select the latter. Why should the
> Jacksonville public settle for less?
>
> Arbitman denied that the sculptures she is going to exhibit are
> reproductions, when in fact the promotional literature supplied by the
> sponsoring Cantor Foundation calls them exactly that. You quote Arbitman
> as an authority on these complex issues, knowing perfectly well that
> when one of your reporters asked her if the Cummer had a sculpture by
> Rodin in its permanent collection, she failed to answer the question
> correctly. This sort ignorance on the part of one who claims to be an
> art professional is reprehensible, and I wonder why you neglected to
> mention that incident. Let's straighten this out once and for all, and
> let the public decide. I openly challenge Arbitman to debate the issue
> of posthumous castings with me in the museum auditorium at any date she
> cares to specify. Of course, this will necessitate her temporarily
> lifting her ban on my entering the museum.
>
> Robert Torchia
> Jacksonville
>

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