In 1884, Frédéric Auguste BartholdiS ‘ Freedom that lights up the world arrived in pieces and assembled in New York Harbor, a gift from Franceand there it has remained for more than 140 years, presiding over social and political shifts, booms and busts, centennials and now, this summer, the United States’ sesquicentennial. Hundreds of copies exist worldwide, though most bear no relation to Barthold’s hand. However, very few do, and in just over a week, one of them will welcome visitors to the Hamptons Fine Art Fair, compliments of New York’s Modern Fine Art gallery.
The monumental story of the 10-meter bronze begins not in 19th-century New York, but in Paris in 2005, at the Musée des Arts et Métiers, where the French art dealer Guillaume Duhamelfounder of Fine Art Duhamelhad joined his son’s elementary school class on a field trip. As they wandered, he spotted Barthold’s original 1878 plaster model – over 9 feet tall from base to torch and bequeathed to the museum by his widow in 1907.
The model, which Bartholdi would enlarge 16 times to produce the 151-foot copper colossus in the port, was too delicate to lend, but Duhamel persuaded the museum to authorize a limited edition of 12 bronze casts (the maximum allowed under French law), financing the project himself and promising the Museté the first part of the cast M. arrangement.
Using a high-tech 3D digital modeling process, a point-for-point reproduction of the original plaster was created and 12 bronzes (numbered 1/8 to 8/8 and I/IV to IV/IV) were cast by Fonderie Susse in Paris, one of the country’s most respected foundries. The first cast went to the Musée des Arts et Métiers, where it entered the permanent collection, though it has since spent time at Ellis Island for Independence Day 2021 before being moved to the French ambassador’s home in Washington, DC, where it will remain until 2031. 11 subsequent casts, other institutions around the world sold to private collectors. American billionaire Leonard Stern was among the original purchasers; his cast was installed at 667 Madison Avenue in New York City at the entrance to the Hartz Group tower.
The cast coming to the Hamptons Fine Art Fair is the penultimate work in Duhamel’s edition (EA III/IV). Priced at $1 million, it’s a bargain, considering he initially sold the actors, according to the New York Timesfor $1.1 million each (or about $1.8 million in today’s dollars). For a giant bronze with direct provenance in Barthold’s original plaster, commissioned by the museum that holds the model and cast by one of the great French foundries, the price is not hard to defend. The fifth cast from the edition went to Sotheby’s block at the New York sale and sold for $970,000. “Freedom lights up the world it is an icon that, although known, exploited, trivialized and endlessly reproduced, has made us forget the heroic effort and technological prowess that went into its creation,” the auction house wrote in the catalog.
The fair will run from July 9-12 and this bronze will be hard to miss. The timing of the offer is, of course, not random. As the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary, the appetite for objects that connect Americans to their founding mythology has sharpened significantly. After all, you only turn 250 once.
