Erbil Arkın first saw Rodin’s The Kiss in 1966 when he was just 16 years old and, as he describes, he was instantly captivated. Years later, in 2004, he purchased his first Rodin sculpture, The Head of Lust, at a Sotheby’s auction. Today, Erbil Arkın is regarded as one of the world’s leading Rodin collectors, with his collection located in Girne.
The Arkın Rodin Collection Museum was established in 2017, coinciding with the opening of the Arkın Creative Arts and Design University, the only university in Cyprus dedicated to art and design. Founded by Erbil Arkın, the museum’s collection includes rare editions of French artist Auguste Rodin’s works, such as The Titan Vase, produced in collaboration with Carrier-Belleuse, as well as iconic pieces like The Kiss, The Gates of Hell, and The Burghers of Calais. The collection consists of over 30 sculptures by Rodin, including masterpieces from his monumental commissions.
Erbil Arkın began his journey into art collecting in the early 2000s, gradually expanding his collection with carefully selected pieces. The collection includes works by 19th-century masters such as Rodin, Carrier-Belleuse, Aimé-Jules Dalou, Alfred Boucher, Alfredo Pina, and Jean Alexandre Joseph Falguire, as well as contemporary artists like Joanna Allen and Maurice Blik, who were influenced by Rodin. The collection also includes archival materials such as the first edition of Leon Maillard’s 1899 monograph on Auguste Rodin, and an original drypoint on Japanese paper depicting Antonin Proust, signed by Rodin.
The Arkın Rodin Collection Museum showcases 70 sculptures made of bronze, marble, and terracotta, forming part of a broader collection. Many of these works are key examples from the 19th-century pioneers of Petite École, such as Rodin, Carrier-Belleuse, and Jules Dalou. The collection also features works by leading 20th and 21st-century artists, as well as paintings, original prints, drawings, photography, and contemporary installations. Selected pieces from this larger collection are exhibited not only in the Arkın Rodin Collection Museum but also in various venues including the Arkın Group’s headquarters, the Arkın Creative Arts and Design University, The Arkın Iskele Hotel, Art Rooms in Girne, and the ARUCAD Art Space in Nicosia.
The core vision of the Arkın Rodin Collection Museum is to present the creative legacy of the modern sculpture pioneer, Auguste Rodin, through a universal cultural perspective, and to bring this unique legacy to art viewers from Girne, Cyprus, to the world. The museum, shaped by Erbil Arkın’s profound admiration for Rodin and his unwavering commitment to art, aims to showcase Rodin’s exploration of the human soul, bodily expression, and timelessness in an aesthetically consistent and intellectually engaging manner, creating a dialogue with contemporary art.
The Arkın Rodin Collection Museum seeks to create a bridge between Cyprus’s layered and rich historical-cultural heritage and Rodin’s universal artistic vision. It aspires to be a reference institution for culture and education not only regionally but internationally.
Beyond being a space for exhibitions, the museum aims to become a center for cultural and intellectual production, focusing on art history and theory, academic collaborations, interdisciplinary discussions, and research. In this context, the museum’s intellectual partnership with Arkın Creative Arts and Design University (ARUCAD) promotes artistic development through education and research.
The museum embraces the transformative power of art as its fundamental principle, discovering the relationship between the human soul, body, and expression through Rodin’s works.
This is a Rodin!
Erbil Arkın first encountered Rodin’s The Kiss in 1966 when he was just 16 years old. Esra Plümer Bardak’s book The Anatomy of Anguish includes the following quote: “In 1966, when I went to Tate with a few friends, we were still school children. It was there that I first saw Rodin’s sculpture, and it ignited something inside me. Immediately after, I began searching for more information about Rodin. Back then, there was no internet, no smartphones to search with. There was nothing. The only way to learn more was to go to libraries and read books on the subject. I was constantly in search: Where could I learn more? That obsession with him started as a thirst for knowledge.”
Erbil Arkın was born in Cyprus as the youngest of three children in a modest Turkish Cypriot family. At the age of two and a half, he moved to join his father, who had previously migrated to the United Kingdom in search of a better life. The family’s financial support came from their father’s earnings as immigrants. Despite his intense interest in and talent for fine arts, Erbil Arkın continued to face financial difficulties. To support his family and overcome the financial struggles of his youth, he decided to abandon his artistic education—a decision that would later become a regret in his life. Although he wished to continue his education, he entered the workforce immediately after graduating. After returning to Cyprus, he founded Arkın Group in 1995 and entered the tourism sector, opening the flagship Arkın Colony Hotel in Girne. Despite facing many challenges, Erbil Arkın achieved financial success in his later years, and eventually reached a position where he could merge his passion for art with his business career. This transformation led him to invest in the works of the artists he admired. He recalls his first purchase of a sculpture for display at The Arkın Colony Hotel as the intersection of these two worlds: “In 2004, while walking towards my bank on Pall Mall, I saw a sculpture in the window of a small gallery. It caught my attention, and I immediately thought it would look great in the hotel. On my way back from the bank, I walked into the gallery and asked, ‘Can I take a look around?’ I was a bit nervous. I was used to visiting museums but had never been to an art gallery before. The gallery owner, Robert Bowman, a businessman through and through, said to me, ‘We’re here to sell sculptures. Please, take a look.’ As I was leaving, I saw another small sculpture on the shelf, and I exclaimed, ‘This is a Rodin!’ He replied, ‘Yes, and it’s for sale.’ I think that was my ‘eureka’ moment. I could own a Rodin! Soon after, Robert and I both realized that I was seriously about to take steps in the world of art collecting. A few months later, I bought my first sculpture, The Wrestlers, from Bowman Gallery, and shortly after, I purchased my first Rodin sculpture, The Head of Lust, at a Sotheby’s auction. That year, I began collecting.”
Over the years, this encounter opened a new path that turned Erbil Arkın’s hunger for knowledge and entrepreneurial spirit into a steady career as a modern sculpture collector. Today, his private collection, consisting of more than seventy sculptures, includes significant representations of the figurative body by masters such as Rodin, Carrier-Belleuse, Aimé-Jules Dalou, Alfred Boucher, Alfredo Pina, and Jean Alexandre Joseph Falguire, as well as works by contemporary artists like Joanna Allen and Maurice Blik, influenced by Rodin. These figures, whether engaged in conflict/struggle or sexual intimacy, whether alone or with others, always feel at home in their solitude. Desire, suffering, and sorrow, expressed through the human figure in each piece, deeply and permanently impacted Erbil Arkın and became a fundamental feature of his own artistic practice.
Having been an art collector for many years, Erbil Arkın invested in the establishment of Art Rooms, a commercial art gallery in Northern Cyprus, which continues to operate as one of the region’s leading professional art venues. In 2017, he opened Arkın Creative Arts and Design University (ARUCAD), the first university in Cyprus dedicated to art, communication, and design. For the opening of ARUCAD, Erbil Arkın shared his special art collection, consisting of 27 original sculptures, with the public.
In addition to works by Auguste Rodin and his contemporaries such as Carrier-Belleuse, Boucher, and Aimé-Jules Dalou, his collection also included his first sculpture, The Wrestlers by Augusto Rivalta. The following year, he opened the Arkın Rodin Collection Gallery in Girne to make the collection more widely accessible through a large-scale exhibition. The space has since transformed into a museum.
