Diego Giacometti
Alberto's brother, who cast furniture in bronze and populated it with small animals.
Diego Giacometti was born at Borgonovo in Switzerland in 1902, a year after his brother Alberto, and spent decades as his assistant in the Paris studio — building armatures, making the plasters, patinating the bronzes. He was also the model for many of the heads. From the 1930s he made furniture in his own right and after Alberto's death in 1966 it became his whole practice: tables, chairs, lamps, chandeliers and console tables cast in bronze, the frames slender and textured, with small owls, cats, foxes and frogs perched on them. The commission for the furniture of the Musee Picasso in Paris occupied his final years. He died in 1985.
The work sits between sculpture and furniture and is bought as both, which makes accurate description important. Pieces were made in small numbers and variants rather than in strict editions, and the same model exists with different tops, patinas and animals, so identifying the specific version is the task. Patina is central and is frequently damaged by cleaning or by glass tops rubbing the frame. Casts made after his death exist. The Musee Picasso commission and named Paris provenance are the strongest documentary anchors.
If you own a work by Diego Giacometti
Send photographs and whatever paperwork came with it. The first question is what the work actually is — edition or unique, when, and in what condition — because everything else follows from the answer. A valuation costs nothing and commits you to nothing.
Write to info@whitebankfineart.co.uk, or start below.
Whitebank Fine Art is an art advisory and gallery, not an auction house, and is not affiliated with any auction house or with the artist, their estate or their representatives. This page describes the range we advise on. Nothing here is investment advice.