“...as bombs began to fall in the suburbs of Paris...” and securing a masterpiece.

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"Bird in Space" by Constantin Brancusi

In the spring of 1940, an intrepid Peggy Guggenheim, American heiress and avid art collector, was on a mission in France. Her goal was to “buy one picture a day” for her projected modern gallery in New York and take them back to the U.S. before France fell to the approaching Germany army.

Peggy Guggenheim and her bed headboard silver sculpture by Calder
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Some artists flocked to her, desperate for money so they could get out of the country. In a short amount of time, she had works by Dali, Giacometti, Man Ray, Leger and others. Leger was stunned by her cool demeanor when she bought his “Men in the City” on the day the Germans invaded Norway....

"Men in the City" by Leger
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But the prize Guggenheim wanted above all was not a painting. It was a polished brass casting of “Bird in Space,” hand finished by Brancusi himself.

It would not be easy. In her diary she wrote

“Brancusi was a marvelous little man with a beard and piercing dark eyes. He was half astute peasant and half real god. He made you very happy to be with him. It was a privilege to know him; unfortunately he got too possessive, and wanted all of my time. He called me Pegitza.”

Guggenheim arrived at his Paris studio/apartment on June 3, finding it covered in a fine white dust.

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She visited with the artist --- bargaining and cajoling. The artist initially placed an outrageous price on the work. Peggy became infuriated and impatient...he was, she said, treating his works as if they were his children. But finally she prevailed.

With the sealing of the deal, Peggy arranged for the sculpture to be packed up for sending to New York City. She knew that the German army was advancing on Paris and she must flee to the south of France with her collection. From there, she would be able to sail to New York. In the following year, she would open The Art of This Century Gallery, dedicated to Cubist, Abstract, Surrealist and Kinetic art.

For the museum’s opening night, Peggy recalls that she wore one earring made for her by Calder and another by Yves Tanguy to express her equal commitment to the schools of art she supported.

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The work of leading European artists flowed through her gallery, along with unknown young Americans: Robert Motherwell, Mark Rothko, Janet Sobel, Clyfford Still – and the gallery’s star attraction Jackson Pollock.

But on the day she left Brancusi in his Paris studio, she recounts in her memoirs a bittersweet moment. When she turned to say goodbye, the artist, crushed by having to part with his beloved bird, stood silently before her with tears streaming down his face...


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The sculpture, now in the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, Venice.

Post Script

“Bird in Space” has also a unique place in U.S. case law. A bronze version of it was declared a work of art (and not a “kitchen utensil”as a customs agent had declared) in the famous trial that was held in New York City in October, 1927, in Brancusi v. United States.

That case which included the testimony of members of the modern art community (and, in a sworn affidavit made to the U.S. Consulate in Paris, by Brancusi himself) is described here http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/art/3610769/When-art-itself-went-on-trial.html

It is incredible to me that a United States federal judge had such a difficult adjudication before him (this is quite apart from the issue of art and pornography). Nonetheless, he did a fine job, IMO...