A new gallery on Avenue Princess Grace has opened its doors, showcasing international artists alongside the work of Monaco’s own Phillipe Pastor.
The Monaco Modern Art gallery is the former artist studio of Monegasque personality Phillipe Pastor. Today, his large art works still dominate the space with their texture, imagery and symbolism, but they are now placed alongside other works by international artists like Banksy, René Gruau, Raymond Hains and Valério Adami.
“The idea was to create an exhibition space here in Monaco in partnership with Monaco Modern Art and Artist Agency,” explains curator Rani Vanouska T. Modely. “So, we have beautiful paintings from Phillipe as well as artwork from great international artists, as you see here today, and others will come throughout the summer.”
Pastor’s current exhibition, La Fin du Monde, features a selection of his recent monumental paintings exploring the theme of climate change. The material, worked in multiple layers and subjected to the natural elements, evokes the forces of an unbridled nature, which transcribes the violence and destructive energy of man towards his environment.
The exhibition includes paintings from his series Bleu Monochrome, in tribute to the sea and particularly to the Mediterranean, a territory of inspiration for his works. Integrating pigments and natural elements, these luminous pieces evoke the pollution of the seabed.
“Pastor always has huge canvases on which he plays with fire, water, wind… he leaves it outside for days, so there is a real interaction,” says Modely. “And since we opened the gallery at the end of May, these pieces have received the most attention, passing people are really drawn to them.”
Other works in the gallery include The Clown by Bernard Lorjou (1908-1986), Vintage American Flag by Alec Monopoly, Interno Pubblico by Valério Adami (b1935), Streetopoly by Dean Zeus Colman (b1968), and GDP Rat by Banksy.
The Monaco Modern Art gallery is open to the general public.
Historic NFT auction of Cannes sites raises over €300k
An NFT of the Palais des Festivals has sold for over €65,000, one of 10 iconic sites in Cannes to go under the hammer in an Artcurial-led auction.
For those who ever thought it would be cool to “own” a piece of property that is technically already owned in the “real” world, Artcurial offered a chance to do just that at their latest auction held on 21st June in Cannes’ Port Canto.
The Palais des Festivals, the Croisette, Ile Sainte-Marguerite and other iconic places in Cannes went under the gavel in an auction of non-fungible tokens (NFT), where buyers were able to purchase these places in the metaverse.
Artcurial, in association with the city of Cannes and Pertrimm, sold 100% of the lots on offer, with sales totalling €331,936. The NFT from the Palais des Festivals was the biggest drawcard, with the winning bid coming in at €65,600.
The Croisette, unsurprisingly, came in a close second with a winning bid of €59,040. The NFT of the Vieux-Port reached €22,304, then those of the Suquet and the Ecomusée Sous-Marin were sold for €27,552 respectively. The Ile Sainte-Marguerite and its Fort Royal, the 10th and last NFT of the auction, closed the sale at €45,920.
“This sale event is a success,” said Arnaud Oliveux, lead auctioneer. “I am proud to have led this sale, which is a world first, but also a first for our House. The 10 emblematic buildings and locations found takers tonight with great bidding battles in the room, on the phone and on the live stream.”
The buyers can now implement these NFTs into the metaverse platform of their choosing. As part of the sale, they received a 3D model of the location to combine the digital with the physical.
French law has allowed auction houses to sell “intangible goods” since 1st March, but it was Artcurial who took it on, making history.
The amount collected will be donated to the Cannes Endowment Fund, for the realisation of local environmental projects.
AS Monaco have slumped to a comprehensive defeat at home against Lyon-Villeurbanne (68-85) to take the Betclic Elite final to a fifth and deciding match.
Following victory in the third match of the series, which put the Roca Team within one win of a maiden Betclic Elite title, Dwayne Bacon told Monaco Life, “We’ve got to keep coming out and landing the first punch, because if they get the lead, it can be a really bad game for us.”
Bacon’s hypothetical, nightmare scenario came true on Wednesday night, as Monaco were blown away in the opening quarter (9-22). Thereafter the home side were left chasing the tie, but Asvel, who beat Sasa Obradovic’s Roca Team in the 2019 final, kept their opposition at arm’s length.
Only the formidable Mike James, comfortably the highest points scorer on the night with 34, prevented a more emphatic score line.
“I don’t really understand. We have shown two completely different sides in the space of two matches. We have a plan and we speak together. We can make errors, but tonight we lacked cohesion. Our game plan was clear, but it wasn’t followed by the players,” said Obradovic post-match.
Few positives can be taken from the encounter, but their fourth quarter performance (29-22) was one of them. Struggling for creative fluency throughout the night, Monaco, led by James, redounded their touch in the final 10 minutes.
Although it was too late to rescue the match, it does however provide a blueprint of how to approach the final match at the Astroballe on Saturday, which will decide the tie and the title.
“We have to prepare for this final tie by asking ourselves what we can all bring collectively. We have to put this match behind us and move forward,” concluded Obradovic.
Monaco lost the 2019 title to the same opponent in the fifth match. To avoid the same fate, they will have to show the same spirit that they showed in matches one and three of this series to upset the French giants on their home court. Everything is still to play for going into this all-or-nothing tie.
Photo source: AS Monaco Basketball
Mareterra: Monaco’s new property goldmine delivers ahead of schedule
With two and a half years until delivery, only four apartments are still for sale in Monaco’s future eco-district Mareterra, while the majority of incoming families will be European, it has been revealed.
Guy-Thomas Levy-Soussan, managing director of SAM L’Anse du Portier, was guest speaker at the Junior Economic Chamber of Monaco meeting on Tuesday. As head of the company responsible for the design, development, financing and marketing of Mareterra, he revealed some very interesting facts about Monaco’s new property goldmine, a future district that is being created thanks to an enormous, multi-billion euro land reclamation project.
The properties, which will cradle Monaco’s new coastline, are definitely expansive, with only 140 apartments and 10 villas built on a total area of six hectares. The smallest apartment is 400sqm; the largest villas are over 3,000sqm. The rest of the district will be filled with 800 trees, making it the densest area in terms of greenery in the entire Principality.
The aim, said Guy-Thomas Levy-Soussan, was to accommodate more families who are settling in Monaco, a demographic that has been significantly growing in size over the years. It goes against a 20-year trend where people would buy studios and small apartments in Monaco for the residency status, but live abroad.
Of the 140 apartments on offer at Mareterra, 136 have already sold – a clear indication that demand is incredibly high, despite the matching price tag. Levy-Soussan was reluctant to reveal the exact price per square metre in the new district, however it would have to be somewhere above Fontvielle’s €58,000 per sqm and Monte-Carlo’s €60,0000 per sqm.
Still, it is not a question of money, said Levy-Soussan, when it came to selecting the district’s new residents. There are “no clients from the Middle East, Asia, and few Russians”, he said, and no investors. Prospective residents were put through a rigorous selection process in order to “have the best people for the neighbourhood”.
So, who will be living in Monaco’s most sought-after district? Mostly families from Italy, France, Belgium and Switzerland, he revealed.
Meanwhile, the project is said to be six months ahead of schedule.
The summer sales have started in most regions of France, but to get the best deals on coveted items in Monaco and the Alpes-Maritime, shoppers will need to wait a couple more weeks.
The summer sales in France and Monaco are a much-loved and much-anticipated tradition for bargain hunters looking to get the best deals on items ranging from clothing to sports equipment to housewares.
In the vast majority of France, the sales officially began on Wednesday 22nd June, but for Corsica and the Alpes-Maritimes, shoppers will need to wait until 6th July to get out the credit cards for deals. The sales period will then run until Tuesday 2nd August.
In Monaco, the summer sales are traditionally set for 1st July to 15th August, giving shoppers a small head start on their French neighbours. The past two years have seen these dates shift due to the pandemic, but a source at the Department of Economic Expansion confirmed to Monaco Life the Friday 1st July date for 2022.
The summer sales take place this year in a world marred by inflation. In May 2022, inflation in France increased by 5.2% over the past year, according to the latest figures from INSEE, undermining the purchasing power of consumers considerably.
The rise in consumer prices is said to be the result of fallout from the pandemic, exacerbated by the war in Ukraine, which caused a surge in energy and agricultural raw material prices.
The sales in France must meet three conditions, according to the Ministry of the Economy. First, they must be accompanied or preceded by advertising. They must also include an announcement of price reductions, which can go as far as resale at a loss, within the limit of the stock to be sold. Finally, they are only able to hold sales during a fixed period, as provided for in the Commercial Code.
Additionally, merchants are not allowed to restock during these commercial operations, unlike during promotions. They can only sell items that have been paid for and offered for at least one month before the start date of the sales.
The exception to the rule is online shopping. Many sales have started already online due to the earlier start date in much of France, giving consumers a chance to grab deals from the comfort of their own homes.
Photo by Claudio Schwarz on Unsplash
Paul Mitchell: We will only part with players if there’s a big offer
As players return to training, AS Monaco sporting director Paul Mitchell speaks to the media about the record fee for Tchouaméni, other transfer objectives, and the club’s pre-season activities.
Monaco’s exploits in the 2021/22 season still linger fresh in the memory, but an early start to the season due to a Champions League play-off tie in early August means players have already returned to training. Monaco Life attended Philippe Clement’s men’s pre-season preparations in La Turbie on Tuesday, before sporting director Paul Mitchell fielded questions from the media.
Now that Aurélien Tchouaméni has been sold, are AS Monaco going to be making moves in the transfer market?
It feels like it hasn’t been a long break, we were here only a few weeks ago discussing the end of the season, and we’re already in a new season. At that point we were discussing Aurélien Tchouaméni. I think we all saw how fast and aggressive Real Madrid came to acquire his services. As an old season closes, a new season begins, and we’re always active and looking to strengthen what is a very good and ambitious young squad.
Monaco Life: Are you happy with the fee you achieved for Tchouaméni and what type of player are you targeting to replace him?
In terms of market value, I think usually a value of this kind and of this volume is created by the champions league. Unfortunately, over the last two years we haven’t managed to force ourselves into that competition. We’re looking forward to trying to do that again this summer. I’d suggest that it’s a value of the highest regard. Usually what this club has shown when it has accumulated similar values in the past, it has been done by doing extremely well and getting to the knockout stages of the Champions League and individuals doing well within that competition. To be able to do that and receive what we have, I think is a great job by all.
I think Aurélien deserves a great opportunity. I would say we’re happy all round from an organisational point of view. We will look for the same profile. There are reasons why players go for the price that they do and it’s because they’re very hard to replace like-for-like. I think there is competition internally with Eliot Matazo with young Soungoutou Magasa and young Mamadou Coulibaly, who is also a very exciting prospect. Youssouf Fofana had another excellent season from January to May and we also have Jean Lucas.
We’ll be active in the market. We’ll be looking at more of a defensive six element, which is what Aurélien gave us. The idea as always is to strengthen the holistic, the whole squad. We’ve got so much football to play and the squad have come back in great physical condition. We need to make sure we have a great squad this summer, not just great individuals.
It’s a packed schedule to begin the season, what needs to be done this year to prevent the errors made last season?
I think we need to be prepared and be in our best mental and physical condition. I think we have to learn from last season’s experiences: how we prepared, the games we played in preseason, the volume of work we did in pre-season, and utilise the experience that this group now has. It’s two years older than when I first arrived. It went through something similar last year, which will help us this year to approach these preparations better and show the best qualities we can. We finished the season in such a strong way, and we need to pick up where we left off.
As you got such a big fee for Tchouaméni, does that mean that you can resist approaches for other players such as Benoît Badiashile?
I think we have a very ambitious shareholder (Dmitry Rybolovlev). I think we were very clear towards the end of the season that it would take an important offer to lose any of our players and we feel that Real Madrid created that important offer, with the size and volume of what they did. That will be the same for every player. The shareholder wants to be successful, he wants to also be sustainable and we have to balance both of those elements the best we can. If people are genuinely interested in our players, and I think we have some exciting profiles in the European market, they will also have to come with an important offer to make him part ways with his talent.
AS Monaco players on their second full day back at pre-season training. Photo by Luke Entwistle, Monaco Life
Having lost Cesc Fabregas, Djibril Sidibé and Vito Mannone, are you looking to replace their experience?
It’s very much a question of balance. When I arrived a couple of years ago, we knew we had to bring in a younger dynamic into the club. We needed to create the ability to be sustainable and build players that could be exciting for the market, but always it’s also about winning and it’s a hard balance. We are looking at a more experienced profile of player to add to this talented young group. It’s always about the individual. We have discussed a bit of a higher age demographic with regards to our recruitment this summer.
Cercle Brugge goalkeeper Thomas Didillon has been involved in training with the group. Could he potentially join the side?
We’ve said before about growing these continued synergies between the two clubs that our shareholder owns. This is another example of how seriously we’re taking our relationship with Cercle. Thomas is a highly talented goalkeeper as we’ve seen the last two days, but also the last two seasons. We have five academy players training with Cercle, we have Thomas with us, so it’s about using our resources to enhance everybody and everything. When we talk about everything, we’re talking about Cercle Bruges and AS Monaco. Thomas has a unique experience to train with a great goalkeeper coach in Frederic De Boever and to train with some great goalkeepers such as Alexander Nübel and Radoslaw Majecki.
Monaco Life: Player sales and club success are often mutually exclusive elements. How does AS Monaco manage to achieve both on a yearly basis?
I can only speak for the last two seasons that I’ve been here. I think that balance is one of the most difficult things to find in modern football. We’ve seen a drastic change in strategy for many clubs, even some of the biggest in the world, in terms of recruiting younger and younger profiles to add a level of sustainability of sales, while also keeping that will and demand to win. That’s definitely where we see ourselves – in that competitive market and space. It is difficult. Like I say, a couple of years ago we felt that we didn’t quite have the talent pool at our disposal, so we made changes within our recruitment, within our talent ID, within our environment to harness more talented players and bring them to the next level. That was definitely a conscious strategy change for the club, and then by performing and creating a culture that can develop some of these guys, you see the bi-product is always higher valuations, which usually leads to higher player sales.
With the money from the Tchouaméni sale, are you able to be aggressive in the market?
I think we also have to remember we have some good players at this moment and time within the football club. We’ve lost an excellent young player in Aurélien, but for me I see that as an opportunity for other players to step into that position. We want to make sure as always that we’re strategic in the market. We’re trying to find the best value possible. We still have on our agenda stability and financial management. We take this very seriously like all clubs.
We will be aggressive but it will be strategic aggression. If we think that there is a good profile that can enhance our squad, as always, we’ll move clearly and concisely. If it takes a little longer, we will also do this to make sure that we have the right squad come 1st September. We have a very exciting squad at this moment in time, a squad that has achieved two podium finishes, which is important to remember and we have our eyes, as always, on other profiles that can enhance us and keep us competitive in every competition.
What are the club’s plans for pre-season friendlies?
The ambition this summer is to have as ambitious a games programme as we possibly can. We know we’re going into the Champions League play-offs and we have a really exciting start to Ligue 1 as well. We’re just finalising things, and hopefully then we can announce them. We’ll try on average to play one game per week up until the play-offs, but there could be a couple of weeks where we put on an additional game just to heighten and make sure the squad is getting the holistic game time and minutes needed. As I’ve said, this season, especially the first part of it, is going to be very much a squad game.
What are the objectives of the club going into the 2022/23 season?
I know it’s getting a bit like a broken record, but this squad has to be competitive in every competition. I think we’ve shown a real capability with a young group to be able to do that and deliver on that with two podium finishes, a final, a semi-final with heart-breaking penalties at the end of it and the last 16 of the Europa League. We’ll always push to be better, every summer we’ll try and add more quality but that’s not just in recruitment, that’s quality of development as well, being better in every single pre-season. We’re pushing the team harder this summer to be more ready, to have a more competitive games programme in our camps. Every year we want to be competitive, in everything that we do on the pitch and off the pitch. That’s always got to be the goal here.
Photo of AS Monaco Sporting Director Paul Mitchell (left) and Coach Philippe Clement (right) taken at a press conference earlier in the year by Luke Entwistle for Monaco Life
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