What promised to be the first major auction event of this fall ended in a flop when a Paris court decided on September 25th 2002 not to allow Christie's to hold a sale of Alberto Giacometti's sculpture works. 36 works by the Swiss artist were due to be sold in Paris on September 28th but
several Parisian auctioneers challenged its venue on grounds that the Giacometti succession was under the control of a legal administrator, meaning that the sale could not be considered as voluntary.
They argued that Christie's had therefore no competence to hold such sale according to French laws as only patented French auctioneers were entitled to do so. Christie's retorted that such sale had nothing to do with the settlement of a bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, the Alberto and Annette Giacometti Association headed by American curator Mary-Lisa Palmer also challenged the forthcoming sale arguing that the legal administrator of the succession had in fact no real need to obtain additional funds to incur running costs.
The Association recalled that a previous sale of Giacometti's works held in Paris in July 1994 had yielded some $ 6 million and asked Mme Hélène da Camara, the legal administrator of the succession, to provide balance sheets to prove she was in need of fresh money.
Giacometti died in 1966 while his wife Annette, who disappeared in 1993, decided to create a foundation bearing his name in order to house her husband's works estimated at $ 122 million.
Roland Dumas, a well-known lawyer who also became Foreign minister, was appointed to take charge of the succession and create such foundation but soon faced the opposition of the Giacometti Association.
Roland Dumas accused the Association of having blocked his initiatives and after becoming tired of facing a spate of procrastinations he handed the baton to Mme Hélène da Camara in 1999.
Relations between the latter and the Association quickly worsened and nothing was done to promote Giacometti's work from then on.
Adrian Darmon
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