Stealing Rodin

“Luis is a rather complex character but had no problem agreeing to participate in the project. He was interested in the film as an artistic collaboration, rather than as an interviewee. Also, this documentary was his opportunity to tell his side of the story, which had never been told to the public.

The Rodin case did not help Onfray’s career in any way. On the contrary, it crushed it. For all of Chile, this story joined the pathetic with the ridiculous, and nobody bought into it. Onfray had never been a well-known name on the local art scene, but after the robbery he disappeared to the level of not existing, becoming an urban myth. In fact, it was difficult for us to find him because after the robbery he changed his name.

The Rodin Case was not taken as a cultural case in Chile. In newspapers, it was more like a police story. The artistic community remained quite indifferent to Onfray and his fate; the truth did not lend much interest. This documentary proposes an artistic debate on this story that was never given at the time.

I think that the Rodin Museum reacted worse to our documentary than to the robbery itself. For the film, we would go into Paris and they closed all their doors to us, barring us from recording at their facilities or from interviewing any person related to the museum. They interpreted our film as a celebration of art theft.” – Cristóbal Valenzuela Berríos, interviewed by Variety magazine.