Alberto Giacometti Value: Top Prices Paid at Auction

L'Homme Au Doigt (1947), which translates as “Pointing Man,” (Pointing Man) achieved Giacometti's current auction record when it sold at Christie's New York in May 2015 - this sale also made it the most expensive sculpture ever sold. Standing at 5ft 10 inches tall, this life-sized bronze sculpture represents the pinnacle of Giacometti's post-war three-dimensional works. The work's exceptional value derives from its rarity as the only example from the edition of six that Giacometti painted by hand, and the legend that Giacometti created the sculpture in a single night to meet a deadline for an exhibition. It is, with a superhuman shape and prophetic pose, an embodiment of Giacometti’s existentialist philosophy; its pointing gesture is believed to symbolise the leading of humanity into a new world following World War II.

L'Homme Qui Marche I (1960) sold at Sotheby's London in February 2010, it set three records. It was the most expensive sculpture ever sold at auction, the most expensive Giacometti artwork ever sold, and very briefly the most expensive artwork ever sold at auction, before Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves, and Bust (1932) sold two months later, in May 2010, for £62.3M. This 183cm bronze figure was created at the height of Giacometti’s career, in collaboration with Giacometti’s favoured foundry and the oldest foundry in France, the Susse Fondeur in Paris. It became an iconic representation of humanity’s solitary journey through existence. Its stance, mid-stride but with two feet on the ground, is somewhere between movement and stillness. The piece's impressive result reflected not only its artistic significance but also its exceptional provenance, having previously been in the collection of the Dresdner Bank in Germany. Other casts of L’Homme Qui Marche I (1960) have been housed in prestigious institutions such as Fondation Maeght, the Kröller-Müller Museum, and the Carnegie Museum of Art.

Chariot (1950), one of six bronze casts made between 1951 and 1952, achieved this result at Sotheby's New York in November 2014. This female figure stands, fixed in place, on a precarious wheeled platform - her form is frail and vulnerable, and it is unclear if she is in motion or balanced. The composition evokes depictions of Etruscan and Egyptian chariots in ancient art, combined with the constant revolutions of modern anxiety. Its conception was heavily influenced by Giacometti’s trauma from a traffic accident, and a vision of a “sparkling pharmacy cart” that he saw while hospitalised.

A 1965 cast of Le Nez (1949), which translates literally to “The Nose,” sold at Sotheby's New York in November 2021, marking a significant achievement for one of Giacometti's most haunting and symbolic works. This suspended bronze, steel, and iron head with hollowed-out eyes is housed within an open metal cage, its elongated nose protruding from the cage boundaries. The piece represents a departure from Giacometti’s standing figures and draws inspiration from both Surrealism and his response to the horrors of World War II - its mouth is wide open as if mid-scream, its eyes and ears are absent, and its piercing nose is reminiscent of Pinocchio caught in a lie. It has been theorised that the sculpture was inspired by a memory of a dying man, whose nose appeared to get longer with his struggle for breath. Its strong performance at auction highlights collector appreciation for Giacometti's more conceptually challenging compositions.

Another of Giacometti’s head sculptures, Grande Tête Mince (1954) achieved almost £10million above its high estimate at Christie's New York in May 2010. Three years later, another cast from this series sold at Sotheby’s New York for £27.8million. Its title translates as “Great Thin Head,” and is a prime example of Giacometti’s fascination with warped, often uncanny portraiture. The extremely attenuated features create a haunting presence that seems to oscillate between materiality and dematerialisation, as if it might disappear when turned sideways - a quality that made Giacometti's work so influential to existentialist thinkers like Jean-Paul Sartre. It was modelled after his younger brother, Diego, and is one of many 1950s male busts that explored the spatial relationship of a sculpture to its viewer. Its sale in 2010 followed the death of its former owner, Frances Brody, who had kept the work in her private collection since 1955.

Trois Hommes Qui Marchent (Grand Plateau) (1948) achieved this result at Sotheby's New York in November 2022. This bronze composition, cast in 1952, features three of Giacometti's characteristic elongated male figures positioned on a flat, table-like platform. The work represents Giacometti's exploration of spatial relationships and human isolation - even when figures occupy the same physical space, they remain psychologically distant. Each figure strides purposefully in a different direction that seems to keep the platform level, trapped in eternal movement, unable to escape the confines of the platform. This powerful meditation on human coexistence and isolation exemplifies the profound philosophical underpinnings of Giacometti's most sought-after works. It was sold out of the David M. Solinger Collection in 2022, where it had remained since its sale from Galerie Maeght in 1952.

Femme Qui Marche I (1932-36), the earliest work on this list, sold at Christie's Paris in June 2022. Standing at a life-size height of 150cm, this elongated female figure represents a crucial transition in Giacometti's artistic development as he moved away from Surrealism toward his signature style. Created over several years during a period of intense experimentation, and finally cast in 1855, the sculpture has a much smoother surface than Giacometti’s later works and subsequently a more economical form. In 1933, it was exhibited at the Galerie Pierre Colle in Paris with additional Surrealist elements, such as a cello-shaped head, a flower-like hand, and a feather hand, which were eventually removed. It is, as such, emblematic of Giacometti’s development as an artist, making it a consistently popular piece for collectors. The piece changed hands and increased in value multiple times, selling in 2022 out of the collection of Hubert de Givenchy.

Grande Femme II (1960) achieved this result at Christie's London in October 2017. At 276.5cm tall, this sculpture is one of Giacometti’s most imposing. It was created as part of a series of four monumental women for an outdoor installation in New York’s Chase Manhattan Bank headquarters plaza - Giacometti’s first public project. Overwhelmed by the scale of the task after struggling to conceptualise figures that would complement the towering skyscrapers around them, Giacometti eventually abandoned the project in 1961. This sculpture was, however, cast in bronze in 1980-81, 20 years after the artist’s death, and kept in the collection of Annette Giacometti from 1982 until 2017. Its commanding height and powerful presence made it a signature work in his oeuvre.

Femme Leoni (1947) sold at Sotheby's New York in May 2023, making it the most recent sale on this list. This 153.2cm bronze female figure exemplifies the artist's fascination with the standing female form - reduced to its essential elements yet retaining a profound presence. Created during the same innovative post-war period as L'Homme Au Doigt (1947), the sculpture demonstrates Giacometti's ability to express vulnerability and strength simultaneously. The work's notable provenance and exhibition history, including the Berlin National Gallery in 1987 and MoMA in 2001, contributed to its strong performance at auction.

Rounding out this top 10 list is the sale of Femme de Venise III (1956) at Christie's New York in November 2022. The sculpture, cast in bronze by Diego Giacometti in 1958 as an edition of six, was part of the prestigious Paul G. Allen Collection. The piece belongs to Giacometti's celebrated Femme De Venise (Women Of Venice) series, created for the 1956 Venice Biennale, where he represented France. The series was initially formed of 15 plaster figures, and then refined into nine bronze sculptures, each inspired by Egyptian statues and Greek korai with an almost volcanic surface texture. This particular sculpture's distinguished provenance began with the Pierre Matisse Gallery in New York, and includes showings at the Royal Academy of Art in London, the Scottish National Gallery of Modern Art, and the Hiroshima Prefectural Art Museum.