CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland Museum of Art is using its new exhibition on Auguste Rodin, opening Friday, as the moment to share that it recently got a tip about the unsolved 1970 bombing of the artist's "Thinker" sculpture on its south steps.
In a booklet accompanying the exhibit, the museum says an unnamed person claiming to know the bomber's identity contacted it earlier this year.
It was the first word the museum said it had received about the case in decades.
"However," the booklet states, "without corroborating evidence to support such a claim, the bomber's identity remains unconfirmed."
The museum provided the new information to the FBI by letter in April, Griswold said.
FBI response
FBI Special Agent Vicki Anderson said she couldn't confirm whether the agency received the information, or whether an investigation is underway.
"If information came our way about this, obviously we're going to work it," she said.
Anderson said the U.S. Attorney's office would determine which federal law applied to the bombing, and whether a statute of limitations also may apply.
Mike Tobin, a spokesman for the U.S. Attorney's Office for Northern Ohio, said that the statute of limitations typically would have expired after 47 years, but there are exceptions for acts of terrorism. He said a court would rule on such a question.
Under the Ohio Revised Code, charges for most felonies, with the exception of homicide, must be brought within six years.
Given the passage of time, museum director William Griswold said it's possible the identity of the Rodin bomber may never be known.
"From a law enforcement viewpoint, it's ancient history," he said.
The booklet for the Rodin show, written by William H. Robinson, senior curator of modern art, and Julie Dansereau-Tackett, a doctoral fellow at Case Western Reserve University, explores Rodin's life and work, and the museum's collection of his sculptures.
Turbulent time
It also describes the political climate in 1970, when protests raged against the war in Vietnam, and members of the Weathermen and Students for a Democratic Society, the SDS, were active in Cleveland.
The bombing at the museum, which occurred shortly after midnight on March 24, 1970, took place against this background, just weeks before National Guardsmen opened fire on protesters and students at Kent State University on May 4, 1970, and killed four.
"No one claimed responsibility" for the Rodin bombing, Robinson and Dansereau-Tackett wrote in the essay, "but the phrase painted on the [sculpture's] pedestal indicated it was a political act: '[illegible word] the ruling class.' "
Griswold said the museum couldn't share details about the tip from the informant because it has no idea whether the information is true.
"I would say that an individual contacted a curator, the curator felt that the story could in fact be true, but we have no evidence, we have no way of corroborating that story, and it seems to us entirely inappropriate to state otherwise or to even suggest otherwise," he said.
"It's hearsay," he added. "We have absolutely no idea if the information is correct, and we have absolutely no way of corroborating the information."
He said only that the alleged bomber "has been dead for almost 40 years."
Two text messages
Chief curator Heather Lemonedes added that the contact from the informant consisted of "an exchange of two text messages."
The museum took steps to verify the informant's claim, but Lemonedes declined to provide additional details.
"I can't tell you the specifics of what we did, because I have to honor the person's request to not reveal the name," she said.
The exhibition "Rodin-100 Years," is part of an international observance of the centenary of Rodin's death that includes museums around the world.
Rodin (1840-1917) is widely considered one of the world's greatest artists because of his ability to use "the human form as the ideal vehicle for conveying inner emotion and complex symbolic thought," as the museum's new booklet states.
"The Thinker" was originally supposed to represent the medieval Italian poet Dante Alighieri brooding atop "The Gates of Hell," a large sculptural doorway commissioned in 1880 by the French government, according to the essay.
Rodin produced a number of large-scale versions of the sculpture, including the one cast in bronze and installed on the museum's south steps in 1917.
Deciding against repairs
After the bombing, the museum determined that the sculpture couldn't be repaired without diluting its artistic integrity. It decided instead to reinstall the work on the south steps, where it has remained in its damaged condition.
Griswold considers the work a reminder of the violent responses that art can sometimes provoke.
"The damaged artwork signifies not only the remarkable role that that objects play our culture," he said, "but it is a reminder in its current state of how fragile the social fabric that binds us all really is."
Exhibition Preview
What's up:
"Rodin - 100 Years," works by Auguste Rodin from the permanent collection.
Venue:
Cleveland Museum of Art
Where:
11150 East Blvd., Cleveland.
When:
Friday, Sept. 1, through Sunday, May 13, 2018
Admission: Free. Call 216-421-7240 or go to clevelandart.org.