I am writing to correct several errors which appear in your article “Judge orders smashing of Giacometti plaster models” (The Art newspaper, No.89, February 1999, p.3).
Although Diego Giacometti may have used Jacques Redoutey’s foundry in Port-sur-Saône, Alberto Giacometti did not.
The works that had been seized by the police in 1989 and that I had examined for the judge in Besançon for identification purposes were decorative objects either by Alberto Giacometti or by Diego Giacometti.
As to the future Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti, Annette Giacometti’s will stipulated that she left to it all the artworks, as well as the archives concerning Alberto Giacometti’s works.
In the event that the Foundation were not to be recognised of “public utility” by the French government, the works belonging to Annette Giacometti’s estate do not go to her brother-in-law Bruno Giacometti, but to her brothers Claude and Michel Arm. These would in turn owe inheritance taxes to the French State.
Sabine Weiss, photographer and friend of Alberto and Annette Giacometti, is the president of our Association.
As Annette Giacometti’s executor, Roland Dumas has declared to the press that he is ready to present (and not “examine” himself) the accounts to the Foundation as soon as it exists.
Mary Lisa Palmer
Director, Association Alberto et Annette Giacometti
Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as '"Alberto Giacometti did not use Redoutey’s foundry"'