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Alberto Giacometti
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Foundation circumventing directions of Giacometti's late wife by limiting collection's exposure, says brother-in-law

Mr Arm, who previously contested his sister's will, now asks that part of the estate goes to auction

Emma Beatty
30 June 2005
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Paris

The long-running series of legal disputes over the estate of Swiss artist Alberto Giacometti, who died in 1966, took another turn last month, when the brother of the artist’s late wife, Annette, petitioned a French court to dissolve the Paris-based Giacometti Foundation. The latter was set up in 2003, after years of legal wrangling to fulfil Annette’s last wishes; she died in 1993.

Its legitimacy has never been accepted by the rival Giacometti Association, founded in 1989 by Annette’s secretary Mary Lisa Palmer.

Annette’s brother Michel Arm accuses the foundation of violating his sister’s wishes to promote the “diffusion of Giacometti’s work” by not yet having opened a public space to show its $370 million collection. He also reproaches it for excessively lending out works for exhibitions “for which it reaps good financial rewards”. He also requested the right to sell part of the collection.

For its part, the foundation condemns Mr Arm’s demands as the ploy of a man desperate to recover what he believes is his inheritance. Mr Arm, tried a similar plan to demand the annulment of his sister’s will last year, claiming that she was not in her right mind when she made it. A date for the hearing has yet to be set.

Originally appeared in The Art Newspaper as 'New claim on Giacometti'

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