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Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung

The Alberto Giacometti-Foundation holds the leading museum collection of works by the Swiss sculptor, painter and graphic artist Alberto Giacometti (1901–1966), comprising over 300 items. The collection spans Alberto Giacometti’s entire career from his earliest works to his very last, covering all main aspects and revealing many surprising facets.

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Leading museum collection

The purpose of the Foundation is to create and maintain an ALBERTO GIACOMETTI CENTRE in Zurich, by means of a museum and representative collection of Alberto Giacometti's works, in order to make the artist's oeuvre in its development and in all its forms of expression (sculpture, painting, drawings and graphics) permanently accessible to the public and to the study of art scholars and art lovers.

The Foundation's holdings are largely kept in the Kunsthaus Zürich and presented in the permanent exhibition collection. The administration and documentation are also domiciled here. A quarter of the original holdings are on display at the Kunstmuseum Basel and ten percent at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur.

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Alberto Giacometti, Selfportrait, 1921, Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, 1965, © Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2019 ProLitteris, Zurich
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Alberto Giacometti, Main prise, 1932, Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, 1965, © Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2019 ProLitteris, Zurich
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Alberto Giacometti, Homme qui marche, 1947, Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, 1965, © Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2019 ProLitteris, Zurich
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Alberto Giacometti, Bildnis der Mutter, 1918, Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, 1981, © Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2019 ProLitteris, Zurich
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Alberto Giacometti, Lotar II, 1965, Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, donated by Bruno and Odette Giacometti, 2006, © Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2019 ProLitteris, Zurich
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Alberto Giacometti, La main, 1947, Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, 1965, © Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2019 ProLitteris, Zurich
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Alberto Giacometti, Composition cubiste, about 1926, Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, donated by Bruno and Odette Giacometti, 2006, © Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2019 ProLitteris, Zurich
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Alberto Giacometti, Femme-cuillère, 1926/1927, Alberto Giacometti-Stiftung, 1965, © Succession Alberto Giacometti / 2019 ProLitteris, Zurich
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Alberto Giacometti at the 31st Art Biennale in Venice, 1962, photo: Ugo Mulas

The Foundation was established in 1965 in Zurich by a group of art-lovers including Hans C. Bechtler who had acquired the Giacomettis owned by Pittsburgh industrialist G. David Thompson via the Basel-based gallery owner Ernst Beyeler. Thompson had collected numerous key sculptures from the artist’s avant-garde period (1925 to 1934) along with examples of most of his major works from 1947 to 1950, the greatest flowering of his creativity. Giacometti himself contributed some later works of his own, consisting of a group of drawings and several paintings, and in 2006 Bruno and Odette Giacometti presented the Foundation with 75 plasters and several bronzes from the artist’s estate.

The collection has now grown to around 800 objects, 135 of which are on display. It encompasses Alberto Giacometti's life's work from his earliest to his last works in all its essential aspects and numerous, surprising facets. A quarter of the original collection is on display at the Kunstmuseum Basel and ten percent at the Kunstmuseum Winterthur.

Website of the Alberto Giacometti Foundation

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Where can I find the Alberto Giacometti Collection?

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