Danaïde

To begin our reflection on works of art in our new exhibition, We Remember: Stories from the September 11 Memorial and Museum, we turn to one of the most coveted and profound works that connects us to those lost in the World Trade Center attack of 2001.

Our extraordinary Danaïde by sculptor Auguste René Rodin (1840-1917) figures prominently in the tragic 9/11 story of Peoria’s son, Charles “Chip” Chan.

As you may remember, in 1988 Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences hosted the blockbuster exhibition The Passion of Rodin, remembered today as one of the most successful cultural events ever staged in Peoria, Illinois. The exhibition became possible because of a business error involving Peoria-based investor Gary Bielfeldt, by Gerald “Bernie” Cantor, then owner of the largest Rodin collection in the world, resulting in a significant financial loss for Bielfeldt.

As an apology, an exhibition of the B. Gerald Cantor Collection of Auguste Rodin was offered, knowing that Gary’s wife, Carlotta Bielfeldt, was then a board member of Lakeview Museum of Arts and Sciences. After the exhibition, Cantor donated Danaïde to the museum.

Thirteen years after Peoria’s momentous exhibition, the world was stunned when the terrorist attack on September 11, 2001, caused the implosion of the World Trade Center.

On the 105th floor of the North Tower were the offices of Cantor Fitzgerald, the global securities firm that B. Gerald Cantor founded and chaired, which housed the “museum in the sky,” where the firm’s corporate collection of more than 300 works of Rodin were displayed, and ultimately lost.

The only Peoria-born victim of the Twin Towers disaster, Chip Chan, had just accepted a position with none other than Cantor Fitzgerald in May of 2001. Chan and the lives of all those lost are remembered when we again exhibit our Rodin, in We Remember: Stories from the September 11 Memorial and Museum.

This exhibition is presented by the Bielfeldt Foundation.

Sponsored by Advanced Medical Transport, RLI, Mike and Lori Gudat, Patricia and Anthony Cutilletta, Sally Snyder, Lisa and Bob Gates, Craig Kliethermes, John and Julia Chan, Sid P. Ruckriegel and Andrew A. Rand Charitable Foundation, America 250 donors, Visionary Society.