Description

Autograph letter signed to Léonce Bénédite (1859-1925) curator of the Musée du Luxembourg and the Musée Rodin.

"4-5-21 Paris
My dear Bénédite,
tomorrow Thursday after 4 p.m. Mr Radier will bring you the following four bronzes for Mr Matzukata:
Small model of the large Heraklès Archer - 10,000 fr
Great Bacchae - 10,000
Dying Centaur - 15,000
Small group Madonna and Child - €15,000
Left at full price - 50,000

This package will also include 
1° for Mr Matzukata - Woman standing with arms crossed, (bronze) which I beg him to accept for himself - and later two drawings in colour.
2° In memory of your very important visit, allow me Monsieur Bénédite to pay you tribute to the bronze (Sapho [sic] a la Lyre) which will be followed by drawings (colour compositions) as soon as I am able.

I am delighted with the good agreement for the bronzes destined for Japan and very honoured by the thought of your visit. I am your most devoted painter and sculptor. 
Antoine Bourdelle."

After a trip to London in 1916, Kojiro Matsukata, president of a shipbuilding company, began to build up an immense art collection, which today forms the core of the Museum of Western Art in Tokyo.
Spending most of his time in Japan, sometimes unsure of his own taste, Matsukata was forced to use intermediaries stationed in Europe for his purchases. It was in these circumstances that he met Léonce Bénédite, director of the Musée du Luxembourg and newly appointed director of the Musée Rodin. Under his influence, the Matsukata collection, which had previously focused largely on English art, turned its attention to France.

A collection of some 400 French works of art entrusted to the care of Léonce Bénédite became the subject of a major legal and diplomatic dispute: as Japan was classified as an "enemy country" during the Second World War, the pieces were seized by the French authorities and sold at auction. It was not until 1956, 6 years after Kenjiro Matsukata's death, that his collection (minus around 15 major works) found its way back to Japan. The Museum of Western Art in Tokyo, which housed it, was inaugurated in June 1959.