The Musée & École Giacometti should open its doors to the public in the second half of 2028 in the former Gare des Invalides train station in Paris’s 7th arrondissement.
While Alberto Giacometti was born in Switzerland in 1901, as of 1922, the artist spent most of his life in Paris. Many of his sculptures, drawings, and other pieces of art were made out of a tiny 23 square meter rental studio in the Montparnasse neighbourhood until his death in 1966. Afterwards, his wife Annette spent the rest of her life until 1993 carefully cataloguing all his works, which led to an impressive collection containing over 10,000 pieces. Once Annette passed away, the Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti took over the collection.
“[That includes] thousands of drawings, over 400 sculptures, 100 paintings, a whole collection of decorative objets d’art, prints, everything that was in the studio, all the archives. People don’t know we have masterpieces from the earliest period, when Giacometti was very young, masterpieces from the Surrealist period, masterpieces from wartime, masterpieces from after the war, masterpieces from the late period”, Fondation Alberto et Annette Giacometti director Catherine Grenier told The Art Newspaper.
Over the past few years, the foundation has been based in a 350-square-meter location known as the Institut Giacometti in Paris’s 14th arrondissement, yet ever since the inauguration of that space in 2018, the goal has been to find a bigger space, which could welcome the public and house dedicated exhibitions.
Big project, big space
Thanks to Paris’ urban renewal project called Réinventer Paris, that space will soon become a reality. The former Gare des Invalides train station in the French capital’s 7th arrondissement is currently being transformed by property developers Emerige Group and Nexity.
Once completed, the building situated on the Seine riverfront next to the Pont Alexandre III will house the new 6,000 square meter headquarters of the foundation. The space will be divided into an exhibition space on the one hand, featuring hundreds of works that have never been shown to the public before. On the other hand, a cafe, a restaurant, a bookshop, and an educational space will complete the offer.
The fancy location of the museum – right in the heart of Paris – and its size have already sparked some criticism. In November 2025, in an article for Swiss Info, Paris-based Swiss journalist Mathieu van Berchem wondered whether it might be “a bit over the top,” and French-Swiss architect and sculptor Serge Lemeslif, underlined Giacometti’s simplicity, something he doesn’t see reflected in the new museum. However, both curator Peter Selz and director Catherine Grenier don’t agree with such reasoning, saying the size of the collection and the educational vocation of the project justify its scale.
While initially scheduled to open in 2026, at the time of writing, the museum is now planning on opening its doors in the second half of 2028.
