A small marble sculpture by Auguste Rodin, titled *Despair (Le Désespoir)* (1892), that had been missing since 1906 was rediscovered and sold at auction for €860,000 ($1 million). The 11-inch figure of a seated woman was initially thought to be a copy but was authenticated by the Comité Rodin after a months-long investigation by auctioneers Aymeric and Philippe Rouillac. The sale took place on June 8 as part of the 37th Garden Party Auction at Château de Villandry in France.
The rediscovery and sale matter because it reunites the art world with a long-lost work by one of history's most celebrated sculptors, adding to the known corpus of Rodin's *Despair* compositions. The sculpture is linked to Rodin's monumental *The Gates of Hell* and exists in only a few versions, making this marble example extremely rare. The auction result also underscores the enduring market value of authenticated Rodin pieces, following a 2015 Sotheby's sale of a related version for £785,000.