ABSTRACT
This chapter discusses for the first time the ruling of the 1966 French court case that the Musée National de France and Brancusi’s executor, Dr Athanassiou, lost against Brancusi’s designated heirs, the couple Alexandru Istrati and Natalia Dumitresco.
It argues that insufficient attention has been given to the question of how his heirs came to possess Brancusi’s molds and plasters in the light of Brancusi’s will. It examines critically the subsequent catalogue entries that the Istratis and the current copyright holder, Theodor Nicol, devised to legitimate these posthumous casts and promote their value in the marketplace, focusing on the 2013 Kasmin Gallery exhibition. It ends with new evidence relating to the fabrication of the posthumous stainless-steel Grand Coq IV, now owned by the Fondation Gianadda, Martigny (Switzerland.)
