Both brothers loved animals. Alberto once said, ‘In a burning
building I would save a cat before a Rembrandt.’ Indeed, Diego’s
feline companions were given the run of the
studio on rue Hippolyte Maindron.
They, in turn, inspired Alberto’s sculpture, Le Chat,
which encapsulates, with humorous affection, the ever-present
cats that wandered among the paintbrushes and plaster dust.
Diego’s bronze animals are also highly prized; his dove,
Tourterelle (1975), from The Collection of Hubert de Givency, was sold at Christie’s in 2017 for €194,500 — almost 10 times its low estimate of €20,000.
