Auguste Rodin

Francois-Auguste-Rene Rodin known as Auguste Rodin was a French sculptor. He moved to the city in 1908, renting the main floor of the Hotel Biron, an 18th-century townhouse. His sculptures are represented in many public and private collections. The Musee Rodin(in picture) was founded in 1916 and opened in 1919 at the Hôtel Biron, where Rodin had lived, and it holds the largest Rodin collection, with more than 6,000 sculptures and 7,000 works on paper. The relative ease of making reproductions has also optimistic many forgeries: a survey of expert opinion placed Rodin in the top ten most-faked artists. Rodin fought against forgeries of his works as early as 1901, and since his death, many cases of planned, large-scale forgeries have been revealed.