attributed to Alexander Calder (American, 1898-1976)... Lot 11

attributed to Alexander Calder (American, 1898-1976) Two candlesticks Metal. Height 6,5, Width 12 cm. Height 5, Width 12 cm. Provenance: - a model offered by Alexander Calder to Christian Quenault, a worker at the Biémont factory in Tours between 1969 and 1972. - The Calder Foundation, which contests the authenticity of these works, has been rejected by the Criminal Court of Paris (June 4, 2013), by the Court of Appeal of Paris (March 4, 2015) and by the Court of Cassation (June 9, 2015), the highest French jurisdiction. Related bibliography: "Les Calder de Quenault aux enchères", Rouillac auction house, Tours, 2019 then Vendôme, 2020. THE LAST CALDER QUENAULT The sale of these sculptures offered by the American Alexander Calder to a young Tourangeau from the Biémont factory is the last act of a long story that started in the early 1970s. Taking a liking to Christian Quenault, just twenty years old, who was assisting him in his Saché workshop, in particular to weld and tidy up, Calder offered him what he described as "an old gift" in wooden boxes. As time went by, the boxes with their twisted iron wires were forgotten in a damp family cellar. They were brought out again for the splendid exhibition "Calder en Touraine", organised by the late friend Alain Irlande at the Château de Tours in 2008. Unfortunately, the Calder Foundation, which represents the interests of the sculptor's descendants, requested the seizure of the works and their destruction for counterfeiting. The legal marathon that followed lasted eight years. It ended before the Court of Cassation, the highest French court, which definitively dismissed the Foundation in 2015. The decision of the Paris Court of Appeal was thus confirmed, which concluded: "after a particularly thorough investigation, both in preparation and at the hearing, there is nothing to seriously establish that the contested works are counterfeit and that they were not given as a gift by Alexander Calder to Christian Quenault. After having presented this set of sculptures at auction in groups of three since 2019, but also at private sales, the time has come to present the last testimonies of this amazing story. The Musée des Arts Forains, represented by Jean-Paul Favand, was the first to acquire pieces of the Circus, showing that the circus arts are fully involved in the adventure of modern art. A private collector from Tours, but also a London art dealer and a corporate collection from Lyon followed suit. Recognizing the artist's work behind the oxidized patina, they decided to bid on sculptures "attributed to" Calder, in accordance with the regulations, which made it possible to take into account the difference of opinion between French justice and an American foundation. The works now offered for auction are the last ones kept by Christian Quenault in Touraine. Two acrobats recall Calder's early days, performing for his friends in a fabulous circus at the beginning of his stay in Paris in the 1920s. Two candlesticks illustrate the wire twisting exercise that so marked those who knew the sculptor. Finally, two important sculptures bear witness to the work begun with the Abstraction-Création group and shown in 1931 at the Galerie Percier. Calder declared at the time: "In front of these new transparent, objective, exact works, I think of Satie, Mondrian, Marcel Duchamp, Brancusi, Arp, those undisputed masters of the inexpressive and silent beauty. There will be no more "Calder de Quenault" presented for the first time at auction. This is now the last opportunity for art lovers to buy a work by one of the greatest sculptors of the 20th century, cleared by the highest French court. Their symbolic price is 10,000 euros. Let's bet that the interest in the future for these historical pieces will be in their image: mobile and airy! Aymeric Rouillac