Now it works! I think your step
"- right-clicked the project, selected Properties>Maven and entered 'release' to the Active Maven Profiles text field"
did the trick. I didn't know that this is necessary.
Still, the ...snapshot line is always recreated if I choose Maven>Update Project Configuration. No idea why. But not so important.
To create the project, I followed the guide
http://docs.jboss.org/richfaces/latest_4_0_X/Developer_Guide/en-US/html/chap-Developer_Guide-Getting_started_with_RichFaces.html#sect-Developer_Guide-Getting_started_with_RichFaces-Creating_a_project_with_Maven
So, yes, used the maven command line.
I attach my Eclipse configuration.
Thanks,
Ulrich