현재 미국뉴욕의 Paul Kasmin Gallery에서는 브랑쿠지의 전시( Brancusi in New York 1913 – 2013)가 열리고 있습니다. 그런데 이 출품작들이  사후에 제작된 것이라 논란이 되고있습니다. 이 작품들을 원작으로 봐야 할까요, 아니면 레플리카로 봐야 할까요? 

전시 중인 이 작품들에 대한 원작자성, 진품성도 논란이 되고 있습니다.  이 전시에서는 브랑쿠지 조각 다섯 점을 출품되었는데 

이 작품들은 브란쿠지 유족의 승낙 하에  오리지널 주물(cast)을 통해 

1992년부터 2010년  사이 주조한  작품들입니다.  

유족이나 갤러리 측은 문제가 없다는 입장이지만 

일각에서는 작가가 사망한 후 주조된 조각은 레플리카, 즉 복제품으로 봐야 한다고 주장합니다. 

이처럼 원작이 여럿이 될 수 있는 멀티플의 경우 작가 사후에 찍어낸 작품들에 대해서는 원작자성과 진품성에 대한 논란이 끊이지 않습니다. 설사 같은 모양이더라도 작가가 의도하지 않은 작품도 원작이 될 수 있을까요. 

설사 작가 사후에 추가로 찍어낸 작품의 원작자성을 인정하더라도 

공장에서 공산품 찍어내듯 무한 복제도 원작으로 인정해야하는지 등의 문제도 남겠고, 

사후 제작 작품을 유통 과정에서 관리하는 것도 간단한 일은 아닐 것 같습니다. 

멀티플의 원작자성 논란은 한동안은 계속될 것으로 보입니다.

그런데 문제는 우리나라에서도 여전히 문제가 된다는 사실입니다. 

사후 판화가 범람하고 규모있고 명망있는 화랑들까지 옵셋 인쇄물(물론 보통 옵셋은 4~5도를 찍지만) 7,8동 10도이상을 찍은 고급옵셋인쇄물을 판화라고 버젓이 파는 경우나 사후 유족들이 도장을 찍은 것, 예를들면 오윤이나 박수근사후판화 천경자 등등 수없이 많은 판화아닌 판화들이 문제라 할 것입니다. 

게다가 사진작품들의 경우 에디션없이 작가의 사인조차 없는 경우도 허다합니다.

조각작품의 경우 브론즈로 주조된 작품의 경우도 허다합니다. 

경우에 따라서는 유족들이 주물공장에 부탁해서 뜨는 사후주조도 성행하는데 그러다 보니 주물공장에서 한 두점 더 떠서 또 시중에 파는 이런 일도 비일비재합니다. 미술시장의 지러를 위해서도 이런 논의는 분명하게 한번쯤 되어야 할때가 온 것은 아닌지 하는 생각입니다.  

Growing Furor over Brancusi Show in New York

Critics say posthumous casts of sculptor's work at New York Gallery are replicas and not authentic.

By ELLEN GAMERMAN CONNECT

Jan. 16, 2014 10:22 p.m. ET

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Constantin Brancusi 'Mademoiselle Pogany II', 1925-2006 © ARS NY/ADAGP, Paris./Brancusi Estate and Paul Kasmin Gallery

Constantin Brancusi caused a stir when his avant-garde sculptures made their debut at the Armory Show in New York in 1913. A century later, he's riling the city's art world yet again.

Five bronze casts from original plasters made by the late Romanian-born artist are on view this winter at the Paul Kasmin Gallery, a show that represents the first fruits of an agreement Mr. Kasmin recently struck with the Brancusi estate.

The New York dealer said he hopes to sell one or two such works a year, some for upward of $2.5 million each.

Brancusi at the Paul Kasmin Gallery

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Critics say posthumous casts of Constantin Brancusi's work at New York Gallery are replicas and not authentic. © ARS NY/ADAGP, Paris/Brancusi Estate and Paul Kasmin Gallery; Francois Halard (photo)

The trouble is, not everyone calls these casts the real thing, and the exhibit has rekindled a long-running debate in the art world over the legitimacy of sculptures created after an artist's death. Disputes over the authenticity of posthumous sculpture—which have beset pieces no less revered than Edgar Degas's bronze dancers—dive into murky ethical waters. They also raise broader questions about the value of a work that an artist might not have touched or even set out to make.

The central complaint here: Brancusi never authorized the creation of additional art in his will, so critics say anything made after his death isn't only a misunderstanding of the nature of his work but a tainted copy that threatens to undermine his legacy and market.

Asher Edelman, a New York art dealer and collector, more than a decade ago sold the posthumous Brancusi he acquired in the 1980s after Brancusi expert Sidney Geist told him that he was "a fool" for having it in his collection. Mr. Edelman said the artist's works were all one-of-a-kind, so any posthumous pieces aren't Brancusis: "There is no such thing as a posthumous edition of a Brancusi—there are replicas, which is what these are."

The five sculptures in the New York gallery were created legally with the estate's approval, cast from plasters found in Brancusi's studio and produced between 1992 and 2010 in the Susse foundry near Paris—the same foundry that has done work over the years for the estates of Joan Miró, Alberto Giacometti and Max Ernst.

"There are always going to be people who say they're 100% against it. I can only help guide you with what's fact—I can't decide somebody else's morals for them," said Mr. Kasmin. "What we want to come of this is to know that Brancusi, like many other great artists' estates, is open for business."

Original Brancusis, which don't come on the market often, can sell for more than $25 million at auction. Mr. Kasmin estimated a posthumous cast could fetch roughly one third the price of a lifetime sculpture.

The dealer said it could be just as easy to read the will's silence on the subject of future sculptures as an endorsement of the idea rather than a rejection of it. He added that the five pieces in his gallery aren't randomly chipped away from slabs of marble, but original multiples from Brancusi's fastidious plasters.

Posthumous Brancusis have entered collections such as the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena, Calif. The exhibition catalog states that such works have been purchased by respected collectors like Nelson Rockefeller, who had "Bird in Space" cast as a memorial tribute years after the 1961 death of his son Michael.

The gallery exhibit, presented as a celebration of the artist's legacy on the 100th anniversary of the Armory Show, doesn't directly state in the wall text that the sculptures were created after Brancusi's death. The production dates of the five pieces are noted in the smaller print checklist and in the exhibit catalog. Though technically this isn't a selling exhibition, Mr. Kasmin said four or five well-known Brancusi collectors already have shown interest and he hopes to start brokering deals soon.

William Tucker, a sculptor and author of an authoritative book on early 20th-century sculpture, said Brancusi was obsessive about the look of each of his pieces and never ceded control over the casting process. Mr. Tucker says the gallery show gives "a false sense of authenticity to what are essentially inauthentic works."

Posthumous works often set off debate—though less so if the artist's wishes are clear. Late casts of pieces by Giacometti finish out projects begun during his lifetime. When he decided a body of work was done, he destroyed the plaster altogether, according to the Giacometti Foundation in Paris.

Questions over Brancusi's legacy began soon after his death in 1957. The artist asked that all the contents of his studio go to the French state, but he named as legal representatives and official heirs his Paris neighbors who worked for him and cared for him in his old age. Their nephew and heir, Theodor Nicol, a Canadian citizen of Romanian origin, now controls the copyright. Brancusi never married and lived alone.

Of the 70 plasters left behind by Brancusi, the heirs chose to make editions of 22 of them, said Jean-Jacques Neuer, the estate's Paris-based lawyer. Based on French law and decisions by the heirs, the works can be produced in either editions of three, five or eight, he said, adding that the estate has produced 40% of the possible posthumous casts to date.

The sculptures in the Brancusi show appear on modern pedestals and are machine polished, details that rankle critics who argue that only the artist made the bases for his sculptures and he finished the pieces himself. "What we have are loads of people with loads of money and squat in their connoisseurship," said Alexandra Parigoris, a sculpture expert and visiting research fellow at the School of Fine Art and History of Art at the University of Leeds in the U.K.

Mr. Kasmin said that even in Brancusi's time, polishing was largely done by machines. He added that Brancusi's bases weren't inherently linked to each sculpture. Mr. Kasmin said rival dealers are jealous he's representing the Brancusi estate.

"Everybody wants this even if they've got every reason to hate it," Mr. Kasmin said as he stood among the gleaming pieces. "The stories I have heard are the ones of people wanting to kill me for it."