2007 in Review: Auction Lots We'll Remember

Undervalued
Alberto Giacometti, "L’homme qui chavire "
(1947, cast 1950)
Christie’s Impressionist & Modern Sale,
New York, May 9, 2007
$18,520,000
Est. $6.5–8.5 million

Quite different from Giacometti’s better-known "Walking Man," which has a purposeful and confident stride, this work, whose title translates as "Falling Man," represents a more existential dilemma.

The ultrathin bronze figure from 1950, a mere 23 inches high, appears to stumble in a kind of Eadweard Muybridge stop-action moment, a victim perhaps of a bullet in the back or a treacherous cobblestone.

The stunning work is emblematic of Giacometti’s cast of 20th-century characters, who struggle to survive in a chaotic and dangerous world. Although it clipped the artist's previous record of $14.3 million, set by "Grande femme debout I" (1960) at the same house in November 2000, it has legs to reach higher.