What began as Annette Giacometti’s effort to enshrine her husband’s legacy in the legendary Rive Gauche Cour de Rohan devolved into one of the most protracted, concatenated and costly estate battles in art-market history. After her 1993 death, the small Alberto and Annette Giacometti Association became the epicenter of a power struggle involving feuding advisers, dueling legal teams, and a French judiciary ill-equipped to handle a foundation's birth by litigation. The 2001 police raid on the association’s archives — complete with locksmiths and a judge in attendance — capped years of mistrust between court-appointed overseer Hélène da Camara and longtime Annette Giacometti aide Mary Lisa Palmer. By the time the foundation was finally created in 2003, more than a decade of wrangling had consumed over $12 million — and underscored how even the most iconic legacies can be undone by opaque intentions and unresolved succession. Epilogue: This took another decade or so to get truly sorted!
