Nikki de saint Phalle

Life and work

Niki de Saint Phalle was a French and American artist, born near Paris in 1930 and dead in California in 2002. She had no academic training. She first worked as a fashion model, then began to paint, and she came to international attention with the Tirs, assemblages of plaster and hidden paint bags that she shot at with a rifle in front of an audience. In 1961 she joined the Nouveaux Réalistes gathered around the critic Pierre Restany, the only woman in the group, and took part in their exhibition at the Galerie J in Paris.

Her first solo show in New York opened in 1962 at the gallery of Alexander Iolas. From the middle of the sixties she turned to the Nanas, large female figures in brightly painted polyester that became her best known motif. In 1966 she built Hon, a huge reclining Nana that visitors could walk into, with Jean Tinguely and Per Olof Ultvedt at the Moderna Museet in Stockholm. In 1967 the Stedelijk Museum in Amsterdam gave her a museum survey. Her later years went into monumental projects, above all the Tarot Garden in Tuscany, and into public fountains made with Tinguely, whom she married. A retrospective at the Grand Palais in Paris in 2014 renewed wide interest in her work.

Unique works and editions

Her output falls into distinct markets. Unique Tirs, early assemblages and large Nanas sit at the top and appear in major sales of contemporary art. Painted polyester sculptures were often made in numbered editions, sometimes with each cast coloured differently, and these trade below unique pieces but well above works on paper. Drawings, often with handwritten text and bright felt tip colour, form a middle tier. Prints, posters and multiples are the most common category and change hands mainly in dedicated print sales.

LLB Auction has sold one work by her, a print titled Dear Clarice from the Eight by Eight portfolio, in its spring sale of 2025. The title recalls Clarice Rivers, the friend whose pregnancy inspired the first Nanas.

What a specialist examines

For sculpture, the specialist looks for the signature and the number, usually on the underside or on a metal plaque, and for the fabricator mark. The edition size and any artist proof status must match the published information. Painted polyester is fragile, so the specialist checks for cracks, paint losses, fading and earlier repairs. The foundation listed under Career must authorise restorations of her work and expects them to be recorded, so an undocumented repair can weigh on a sale.

For drawings, a signature and date in the artist's hand, handwritten inscriptions and a clear family or gallery provenance matter most. For prints, the specialist checks the edition number, whether the sheet is signed in pencil or ink, the paper and the margins. The foundation does not register printed works, so a print is judged on its own evidence and on its publication record. Exhibition history and published literature add weight for unique works.

Market position

Recent public results at Bonhams show the spread between categories. Sun God, a cast polyester sculpture from an edition of seven with individual colouring, sold for USD 40,000 in New York in 2013. Vase Chien, an editioned sculpture in resin, iron and earthenware, sold for USD 28,160 in Los Angeles in 2024. A signed offset lithograph, Untitled (Self Portrait with Gun), sold for USD 5,355 in New York in 2022. A small signed drawing in felt tip pen and pencil sold for EUR 4,864 at Bonhams Cornette de Saint Cyr in Paris in 2025. All four figures include the buyer's premium.

Preparing a valuation request

A seller should gather the purchase invoice and any gallery, publisher or family provenance. Clear photographs of the front, the back or underside, the signature and any number or fabricator mark are needed. Give the exact dimensions, the medium and the edition number where there is one. For a sculpture, include a condition report and any record of past restoration. For a unique work, mention any registration document already issued by the foundation, and any exhibition or publication history. For a print, state the publisher and the portfolio if known, and say whether the sheet is framed or has been trimmed.