There has never been a scholarly Brancusi industry here or in Western Europe, and we seldom see an article on the sculptor other than the substantial journalistic response to public events, like exhibitions or the 1927-28 Bird in Space trial (duty-able object of manufacture or duty-free work of art?)—surely an odd state of affairs: half of Brancusi’s sculptures are in the United States, and there is the ever-growing opinion that he is the most important sculptor of the century. The situation is rather different in Rumania, where Brancusi, as a public subject, was rehabilitated only in the late Fifties—after his death in 1957—when the authorities recognized in him a great potential for favorable publicity. Rehabilitation reached a climax in the international Brancusi Colloquium held in Bucharest in 1967. The bibliography of Barbu Brezianu’s monograph on the sculptor (1974) lists five hundred items—notes, articles, and books—touching upon Brancusi that were published in Rumania since the end of the Fifties. This is a remarkable record for a geographical area smaller than the state of Oregon. Anyone in Rumania who has an opinion on anything has one on Brancusi. He is, to be sure, a valid reason for national pride.

This pride has sometimes assumed inordinate forms. For example, this article’s light-opera title (whose small point will be apparent in a moment) was actually the title of a 1976 book by V. G. Paleolog, a prolific Brancusian whose writings on the sculptor hover on the brink of idolatry. A much more