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César Baldaccini (1921 – 1998) from Marseille was one of the great sculptors of the twentieth century. Among César’s casts of sculpted breasts, female torsos and clenched fists, it is the thumb (designed in 1965), that, above all else, has emerged as the artist’s hallmark – his own, greatly enlarged thumb in bronze. César's thumb sculptures are exhibited in many big cities in the world, including e.g.: Paris, Marseille, Shanghai & Seoul. The left picture above shows one out of three Pouce (thumb) named ‘Le Pouce’: this sculpture has a huge weight of 18 tonnes and height of 12 meters. Estimated between 900,000 and 1.2 million, this incredible artwork was auctioned as part of a sale prestige Drouot-Montaigne in Paris at the International Fair of Contemporary Art (FIAC). One of the three creations was recently purchased by a collector for a cool US $1,745 million. This is the highest amount ever paid for any of the Cesar’s works till the date.
In the summer of 2008 one hundred works of César Baldaccini were exhibited from early July till the end of october at 'la Fondation Cartier' for Contemporary Art, featured by Jean Nouvel, architect of the building and friend of the famous sculptor. The visitors were able to discover many of César's famous thumbs, made by the artist with various materials including: bronze, Baccarat crystal, stainless steel, aluminum and pink marble. The picture below presents an impression from this remarkable César exposition: strong, bold and hypnotizing!! 
"The hand without a thumb is at worst nothing but an animated fish-slice, and at best a pair of forcepts whose points don't meet properly. Whithout the thumb the hand is put back 60 million years in evolutionary terms to a stage when the thumb hand no independent movement and was just another digit." John Napier (quoted by Frank Wilson in: 'The Hand  ')
Sources: superglaces.com, bornrich.com & senior writers center
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