Lost Camille Claudel Sculpture found in Paris sold for $3.1 Million at Auction

A bronze by French sculptor Camille Claudel thought to evoke her separation with fellow artist and lover Auguste Rodin was auctioned off in Orleans, France, Sunday for more than $3 million.

Claudel, whose life and tortured love affair with Rodin have inspired several films, destroyed much of her work before her brother confined her to a psychiatric hospital in 1913. 

The artist sculpted "The Mature Age" after she broke off with Rodin, who was two decades older, seeking to create a name for herself in her own right after years as his assistant.

The sculpture depicts an elderly woman dragging an ageing man away, while a young woman on her knees implores him. 

Art historians have seen in "The Implorer" a representation of Claudel devastated as Rodin is torn away from her.

Auctioneer Matthieu Semont told AFP he discovered the latest copy by chance in September, by lifting up a dust sheet in a flat near the Eiffel Tower that had been abandoned for around 15 years. He did not say to whom it belonged.

Semont said that, from his research into Claudel's life, it seemed Rodin had "never stopped loving her and cried when he discovered 'The Implorer' at the foundry".

Despite pleas by doctors and friends that she was sane and did not need to be in hospital, Claudel remained confined to the asylum on her family's orders until her death aged 78 in 1943.