Jean Tinguely & Niki de Saint Phalle, the Bonnie & Clyde of European art [23 Sep 2025]

The exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris dedicated to Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle celebrates their closely linked careers. Partners in life and in creation, they pushed the boundaries of contemporary art. But is their artistic complicity reflected in their respective auction market valuations?

Partners in life and in creation, Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle formed one of the most explosive duos in 20th-century art. He with crazy sculptural machines and she with triumphant 'Nanas': their works certainly share the same audacity and subversive energy. But while Art History likes to underscoretheir complicity, their market trajectories tell a rather contrasting story because works by the Franco-American (Saint-Phalle) consistently sell at higher prices than works by her Swiss partner.

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Niki de Saint Phalle vs Jean Tinguely, a duel at the top

Two contrasting markets

Museum exposure: Tinguely in the lead

Charisma and popularity: Niki's advantage

Niki de Saint Phalle vs Jean Tinguely, a duel at the top

Works by both artists have sold in the premium segments of the art auction market, but not in exactly the same price ranges. Fifteen works by Niki DE SAINT-PHALLE (1930-2002) have crossed the $500,000 threshold compared with only seven for Tinguely. Niki's auction record was hammered for a monumental Nana gonflable measuring almost three meters tall and fetching $1.1 million in 2006 at Sotheby's New York. This was followed by another 7-digit result in 2015, for Nana Danseuse Noire at Artcurial in Paris. She therefore has a stable, recurring and established market valuation.

In contrast, there have been no 7-digit results for works by Jean TINGUELY (1925-1991) apart from a very surprising result in 2008 when a Métamatic (1959) - one of his famous kinetic sculptures - reached $2 million at Sotheby's London, well above its high estimate of $400,000. This appears to have been a spectacular but isolated record. So whereas Niki regularly confirms, Tinguely surprised once… but then receded to a lower market valuation.

Niki de Saint Phalle, therefore, stands out through the regularity and strength of her market valuation, while Jean Tinguely remains associated with a freak result and displays a price momentum capped at half a million USD.

Two contrasting markets

He was Swiss, she was French-American. Together, they established themselves among the French New Realists in the 1960s, with a reputation that quickly spread beyond borders. Yet their markets tell different stories.

Switzerland and France remain Tinguely's strongholds, where the majority of his works are concentrated. For Niki, France accounts for the majority of her sales, but an even stronger interest in Anglo-Saxon markets (essentially the USA and the UK) has fueled competition and boosted the prices of her major works.

There is also a difference in the density of their markets since Niki de Saint Phalle produced and exhibited many more works than Tinguely: nearly 3,500 in fifty years. This abundance - a third more works sold than her partner over the last five years - is no coincidence, but rather the fruit of a clear strategy. Niki always declared she was interested in creating art for the masses. In 1959, she joined forces with Daniel SPOERRI (1930-2024) for MAT (Multiplication d'Art Transformable) editions, with the ambition of distributing works in series. Although the results of that experience remain mixed, it inaugurated a fruitful logic: multiplying channels, broadening the audience, and strengthening the presence of her work on the market.

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Over the last five years, a total of 813 works by Jean Tinguely have generated $8.37 million, while for Niki de Saint Phalle, there have been 1,290 transactions, generating $22.8 million.

Niki de Saint Phalle: a dense and durable market distribution

In the 1980s, Niki de Saint Phalle further radicalized her credo of 'accessible art for everyone'. She initiated a prolific production of "original multiples" and derivative products - perfumes, lithographs, miniatures, and inflatable Nanas - which circulate widely beyond traditional collector circles. However, this profusion did not dilute the values of her works: on the contrary, it allowed her to finance her monumental projects, such as the Jardin des Tarots (Tarot Garden), while introducing large numbers of her works into the daily lives of art enthusiasts.

A symbol of this success is her inflatable Nanas. Back in the day, they sold for just a few dollars; they now fetch between 300 and 1,000 dollars at auction. This increase illustrates the extent to which her distribution strategy has built a vibrant, sustainable market capable of attracting all categories of collectors.

Niki DE SAINT-PHALLE (1930-2002), Inflatable Nana (1968)

Edition MFD, by Marlo Plastics, Brooklyn, New York.

Online sale from 03/27/2025 to 04/03/2025, Artcurial. Estimate: $331 - $552

Museum exposure: Tinguely in the lead

At the institutional level, Jean Tinguely has had a better reception. His international museum career was both early and spectacular: in 1960, he caused a sensation at the MoMA in New York with Homage to New York, a 16-meter machine that partially self-destructed in the museum's courtyard in front of a carefully selected audience.

The event was widely covered by the American and European press, fascinated by the mixture of art, spectacle, and technological provocation. This performance marked a breakthrough: Tinguely established himself as a pioneer of machine art, both kinetic and ephemeral, in resonance with questions about 'consumer society' and 'industrial culture'.

The artist's fame immediately spread: he was seen as one of the most radical representatives of the European avant-garde, capable of conquering the New York scene, then dominated by Abstract Expressionism. This episode permanently established his image as a creator of spectacular, audacious, and destructive "spectacle-works", which subsequently became his signature.

After this New York coup, Tinguely became the face of the Swiss avant-garde, and Switzerland chose him on several occasions to represent the country at major international events, thus consolidating his status as a major artist on the world stage. This recognition culminated in 1988 with a retrospective at the Centre Pompidou in Paris, which definitively anchored him to the museum sphere during his lifetime.

Niki de Saint Phalle doesnot lack institutional visibility, but her museum consecration came above all after her death, notably with a retrospective at the Grand Palais in 2014.

Charisma and popularity: Niki's advantage

French-American and former model for Vogue and Life Magazine, Niki de Saint Phalle understood how to project her work into the public sphere. Using the media and her elegant good looks to her best advantage, she criticized the stereotypes that surrounded her, and put herself in the spotlight… building a veritable personality cult.

Her notoriety was launched early on by a series of Tirs (Shots): armed with a rifle, she took aim at pockets of paint hidden under a layer of white plaster: each impact splashed the surface, revealing explosive and unpredictable colors. Somewhere between 'happening', 'performance', and painting, these sessions transformed canvases into battlefields and the artist into a 'rebel shooter'. The Shots were as much a manifesto as a ritual: a denunciation of violence… a symbolic killing of an art becomingtoo rigid, and an affirmation of her own voice in an artistic universe dominated by men.

Between scandal and fascination, the first session in 1961 earned her an invitation to export the performance to the United States. Through her creations, her convictions (political, feminist, minorities, etc.) found an immediate and powerful echo in the media and among the general public, somewhat in contrast to Tinguely's customaryreserve.

To find out more about the prices of the works of Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle:

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The Cyclop by Jean Tinguely. Niki de Saint Phalle's Face to the Mirrors, 1987-1991.

@CNAP/PhotoMarcDomage

Together, Niki de Saint Phalle and Jean Tinguely pushed the boundaries of contemporary art, leaving behind iconic works such as the 350-ton steel monster Cyclopsin a forest near Paris that took over twenty-five years to build. It is now listed as a national heritage site. This is, nowadays, a rare recognition that has recently been awarded to the Abode of Chaos - another 'total work of art' - which is also home to a superb portrait of Niki, proof of her radiance even in the most current creations.

"The Abode of Chaos is much more than a place: it is a living manifesto. Like Postman Cheval's Ideal Palace or Jean Tinguely and Niki de Saint Phalle's Cyclops, it is part of the French tradition of extraordinary works, of those free artistic projects that transcend the ages." Rachida Dati, French Minister of Culture.

Committed to making art accessible to all and challenging conventions with monumental works, the legacies of both artists have endured. Yet on the market, their paths have somewhat diverged: Niki reigns supreme in transactions and prices versus a more discreet market for Tinguely's work, despite being one of the pioneers of kinetic and robotic art (practices that are now enjoying a new surge today).It is conceivable that the current exhibition at the Grand Palais in Paris will add momentum to Tinguely's market, allowing him to regain his rightful place - that of a visionary, an essential precursor.

Exhibition "Niki de Saint Phalle, Jean Tinguely, Pontus Hulten"

26 June 2025 - 4 January 2026

Grand Palais, Paris

Illustration: Niki de Saint Phalle, Portrait, Abode of Chaos, thierry Ehrmann