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Day: 1 July 2022

Gold Secular and Sacred explores use of precious metal in art

by: Stephanie Horsman
01/07/2022

Maison d’Art is hosting an exhibit in the Hôtel de Paris featuring artists from the 13th century to today who have incorporated gold as an enhancement to their paintings, adding richness, depth and a certain show of power. 

It’s not called the gold standard for nothing. Gold as a precious metal has been cherished for millennia as a sign of wealth and power, but it also has been used for its inherent beauty. This manifested itself over the centuries in jewellery, objets d’art, and fine art.

Now, Maison d’Art in Monaco is putting together a show dedicated entirely to the use of gold in art, entitled Gold, Secular and Sacred, featuring gold-inflected pieces from the 13th century to the present.

In days gone by, gold was used in the form of leaf or as an eye-catching detail. The resulting works were highly treasured and typically signified high rank or status, as well as being a sort of tribute to a certain place, often a church.

Di Pietro, St Augustine

The painters who specialised in working with gold were hugely respected and many became famous during their lifetimes. As for the patrons, gold ground pictures were presented to local parishes, and the quantity of images often stood in direct proportion to the quality of relations between individual offering the piece and the Church.

The exhibit combines painting of this era by Niccolò di Pietro, Andrea di Bonaiuto, Jacobello del Fiore, and Bartolomeo Rigossi da Gallarate and Tuscan Byzantine painter Pietro Lorenzetti, who was a collaborator of Segna di Buonaventura with an artist from today, Carlos Rolón.

Born in Chicago, he is known for his multi-disciplinary practice that employs craft, ritual, beauty, spirituality, and history to explore memory and the macro narrative of the Caribbean diaspora as a symbol for broader issues surrounding migration and inclusion.

Rolón uses gold to “explore history that directly deals with questions of inclusion, aspiration, cultural identity, cultivated settings, and their relationship to post-colonial spaces.” He uses gold intermixed with vivid tropical flowers from the New World to show how the beauty of the locations got lost in the quest for gold by the early Spanish explorers. The gold-lust decimated the Americas whilst gold went to Spain to line the pockets of the wealthy.

These works reimagine the beautiful flora and fauna that protected these precious minerals, creating a sense of urgency and beauty from a place of destruction that pays homage to his native heritage of Puerto Rico.

The exhibition is being held at the Salon Louise-Hippolyte at the Hôtel de Paris.

 

Photo: Lombardisch Bartolomeo Rigossi da Gallarate 1476

 

 

 

SBM completes online gambling transfer for hefty profit

by: Cassandra Tanti
01/07/2022

Société des Bains de Mer has confirmed the sale of its 47% stake in Betclic Everest Group, a French online gambling company, in a deal that garners a €710 million profit for Monaco’s largest company.

After announcing the upcoming sale on 11th May 2022, the Société des Bains de Mer and the Cercle des Etrangers in Monaco on Friday 1st July confirmed that its subsidiary, the Luxembourg company Monte-Carlo SBM International S.à.r.l. (SBM International), had transferred on 30th June 2022, by sale and contribution, the entire 47.30% stake it held in Betclic Everest Group (BEG) to Dutch company FL Entertainment N.V. (FL Entertainment).

As a result, FL Entertainment is now listed on the regulated market of Euronext Amsterdam, and SBM International holds 4.95% of the voting rights and 10.39% of the effective economic rights of this company.

“This transaction, which will result in a very significant favourable impact on the consolidated financial statements of the S.B.M. for the 2022/2023 financial year, gives SBM International the financial means to pursue its development strategy, while maintaining a significant stake in a world leader in entertainment operating in attractive market segments with strong growth potential,” said the company in a press statement.

The deal values SBM International’s stake in BEG at €850 million, compared with its initial financial investment of €140 million in 2009.

The transfer is part of a business cooperation agreement between Pegasus Entrepreneurial Acquisition Company Europe B.V. (Pegasus Entrepreneurs) and FL Entertainment, combining, according to SBM, two complementary and successful businesses in two attractive market segments with high growth potential: Banjay (the largest independent content production company in the world, operating over 120 production companies across 22 countries) and BEG.

“SBM International’s participation in this transaction will ensure the continuation of a successful partnership, undertaken with Stéphane Courbit (future chairman of the FL Entertainment board) since May 2009, when SBM International acquired its stake in BEG,” said the Monegasque company in May.

 

 

Photo by Cassandra Tanti, Monaco Life

 

 

 

AS Monaco launches Elite Group

by: Luke Entwistle
01/07/2022

AS Monaco announced the creation of an ‘Elite Group’ on Thursday, which will see the club’s reserve side withdraw from the N2 and instead prioritise matches against some of Europe’s elite.

In the face of challenges facing many of Ligue 1’s reserve sides, Monaco have withdrawn theirs from the N2 in order to ensure the progression of their promising youth players. The competitiveness of the division is driving an increasing number of teams to integrate fully-fledged senior professionals into their sides, which naturally works to the detriment of the developing players.

These problems will only be exacerbated by a restructuring, which will see a reduction from five N2 groups to just three. This will once again create a drive to integrate more senior pros, and thus have an increasingly detrimental impact on youth development.

Monaco have been proactive in reacting to this threat. Instead of completely dismantling the reserve side as PSG did a few years ago, Monaco are adopting a change of strategy, which they believe will aid the evolution of some of the club’s hottest prospects.

An Elite Group has been created, which will encompass the U21 to U19 age groups, and will be managed by Damien Perrinelle. The former New York Red Bulls defender joined the club as an assistant manager in 2020, and although very much part of the first team set-up, he has been a reference point for youth players. Naturally therefore, the 38-year-old Frenchman has been chosen for this new role, which will strengthen and reinforce the links not only between the academy and the first team, but also partner club Cercle Brugge.

Monaco are a club that maintains a highly youth-oriented strategy. Many World Cup winners including Emmanuel Petit, David Trezeguet, Lillian Thuram, Thierry Henry and more recently Kylian Mbappé have passed through the academy on their way to enjoying trophy-laiden careers.

In order to ensure that the next generation have the same opportunity to follow in the footsteps of some of the greats, Monaco will this year compete in the Premier League International Cup, which comprises 12 Premier League academy sides, as well as 12 other elite European academy sides. There is also the potential for the side to face senior French clubs. The club sees this path as the most conducive to allowing the youth to integrate into a senior side that welcomed nine academy products in the last two years, and has been ranked by the CIES as one the strongest teams for developing talent in Europe.

Speaking in a press release, Director of youth development Pascal de Maesschalck said, “In the search for the best training path, this opportunity is the best way to develop the numerous connections in our current ecosystem, and bring AS Monaco and Cercle Brugge even closer together.”

Sporting director Paul Mitchell added, “Through this new approach, the club hopes to continue to reinforce the impact on the first team, just as the nine academy players, who have made their professional debuts, already have in the past two seasons.”

Amidst the troubling context of worsening conditions for youth sides participating in the N2 and below, Monaco have taken an alternative path in order to safeguard the progression of their academy, which remains the cornerstone of the project at the Principality club.

 

 

Photo by Luke Entwistle, Monaco Life

 

 

 

Two Poles, a Common Future

by: Stephanie Horsman
01/07/2022

Alongside the UN Ocean Conference in Lisbon, Prince Albert has made a call to action, asking around 100 high-level guests to lend their voices to the plight of the polar regions and support the Two Poles, a Common Future initiative.

The Prince Albert-led talk, Polar Oceans: Driving Force of the Global Ocean, at the United Nations Ocean Conference, held from 28th June to 1st July in Lisbon, drew over a hundred high-level guests to hear about the current situation in the polar regions.

Held by the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, alongside the Oceanographic Institute and the Océano Azul Foundation, a panel of scientists, polar experts and artists came together to discuss the importance of the polar oceans as “vectors of global ocean and climate change, but also the need to contribute to better hear the messages of scientists.”

In his opening speech, Prince Albert said that, “the Poles constitute an essential link in the oceanic system (…) both as regards to oceanic balances, those of species, currents and major planetary fluxes, as well as with regard to the preservation of the climate. For my part, I would like to underline the extent to which this role is also political, as the Poles concentrate, like a laboratory, most of the questions that we face when it comes to acting for the oceans.”  

He went on to explain that there are solutions, saying the “prospects for solutions, in particular through a certain number of lines of work whose effectiveness we know” are in sight.

The first session, moderated by Dr Renuka Badhe, Executive Secretary of the European Polar Board, recalled the importance of the Arctic and Southern Oceans on a global scale, but also underscored the need for collaborative and inclusive work. Teacher Michael Meredith, oceanographer and science leader at the British Antarctic Survey, said that there is only one ocean and it provides connectivity on a planetary scale. However, the circulation of ocean currents is already changing and will continue to change in the future with repercussions both on our climate and on ecosystems and global populations. Unfortunately, our current ability to predict the timing and magnitude of these changes in the Poles is still limited, which hampers the implementation of efficient climate policies.

Photo by Gaëtan Luci, Prince’s Palace

Initiating the Polar Ocean Action Plans as part of the UN Decade of Ocean Science is an important step, said Dr Sian Henley, Lecturer in Marine Science at the University of Edinburgh and Vice President of the Southern Ocean Observing System.

Next up, Florence Colleoni, Glaciologist and Paleoclimatologist at the National Institute of Oceanography and applied geophysics (OGS) and Richard Bellerby, Scientific Director for Climate and Oceans at the Norwegian Institute of Water Research, spoke about loss of sea ice, acidification and the effects of these two phenomena globally.

The second session moderated by Ashok Adicéam, Special Advisor to the French Ambassador for the Poles and Maritime Affairs, focused on mediation. The need to evoke emotion to convey messages about the urgency of the situation was addressed. Building stories that directly reach the hearts of audiences, they said, is a powerful way to bring about awareness and to get more active responses from the population.

The talk ended with a call to action, inviting all those assembled to mobilise and lend their voices to the plight of the polar regions. There were five specific ways suggested to do so, and were put into a single document, entitled Two Poles, a Common Future.

The points it touches on are addressing the fact that there is a problem, increasing investment in polar research, minimising pressure on the regions, building collaboration between the Arctic and Antarctic communities, and being a voice for the regions.

 

 

Photo of Prince Albert in Lisbon, credit: Sarah Del Ben

 

 

 

The ASM rumour mill: Diop, Akliouche, Belotti, Soumaré

by: Luke Entwistle
01/07/2022

The transfer window officially opened on Friday, but AS Monaco have already got down to business with the signing of Takumi Minamino as well as the departures of Strahinja Pavlović and Pietro Pellegri.

Whilst rumours of potential incomings at the Stade Louis II have run dry in recent days, plenty of players continue to be linked with departures, most notably Benoît Badiashile and Sofiane Diop.

Benoît Badiashile – Linked by Nice Matin to Sevilla. Following the denouement of the Aurélien Tchouaméni transfer saga, a new saga has risen to replace it. Badiashile has been incessantly linked with a move away from the Principality club, and those rumours are only intensifying. The France U21 defender was heavily linked with Newcastle in January, and those rumours have persisted. However, the Tyneside club’s recent acquisition of Lille’s Sven Botman makes a further move unlikely.

But Badiashile is certainly not short of suitors. According to Nice Matin, Sevilla are one of the most serious pursuers. Having lost Diego Carlos to Aston Villa, they are looking for a high-quality replacement. That player could be Badiahsile, although Chelsea, Manchester United and Atletico Madrid could provide competition for his signature. Competition as well as price could be a deterring factor. Having lined their wallets with the reported €100m sale of Tchouaméni, Monaco are under no obligation to sell. The Principality club are looking for a fee in the region of €50m-60m, whilst it is reported that the Monaco academy product won’t push for a move.

Maghnes Akliouche – Linked by Nice Matin to Hertha Berlin, Werder Bremen, Real Sociedad. Whilst Badiashile’s future at Monaco remains unclear, the same can’t be said for Akliouche, who looks set to remain at the Stade Louis II for the upcoming season, despite having a range of loan offers at his disposal.

Werder Bremen, Hertha Berlin, Real Sociedad, Cadiz and Girona were all said to have expressed an interest in taking Monaco’s 20-year-old attacking midfielder on loan. However, after breaking into the first-team last season (nine appearances) and shining at the Maurice Revello tournament, where he was awarded third-best player, he believes he can feature more prominently for Philippe Clement’s side next season.

Andrea Belotti – Linked by Italian media to AS Monaco. Free agent and Italian international striker Andrea Belotti’s future remains undecided. Whilst numerous Italian media outlets and journalists, notably Gianluca di Marzio, have linked the former Torino striker with a move to the Riviera, Nice Matin report that a move is in fact not close. The French media reports that contrary to reports on the other side of the border, there has not been any contact between Monaco and the player’s entourage. Monaco are already blessed with a wealth of options in attack and the signing of Minamino adds further depth. The centre-forward position could nonetheless be strengthened further between now and the end of the window in two months time.

Boubakary Soumaré – Linked by Media Foot to AS Monaco. The search for Tchouaméni’s replacement continues. Having been previously linked with Danilo and Amadou Onana, a new target has emerged. Soumaré, who plies his trade in the Premier League with Leicester is garnering interest across the continent. Capable of playing in a pivot or as a lone no.6, his profile reportedly interests the scouting department at Monaco.

The France youth international made the switch from Ligue 1 to Leicester last season for €20m, but has struggled to nail a place in Brendan Rodgers’ side. Consequently, the player could be free to leave the English club. However, Monaco could face competition for his signature. The former Lille midfielder also features on the shortlist of Serie A side Atalanta. It remains to be seen what kind of deal any interested party would favour, as Soumaré has a long-term contract running until 2026. As a result a loan deal could be a more realistic prospect.

Sofiane Diop – Linked by Nice Matin to OGC Nice. There was once a time when Diop was a guaranteed starter at Monaco. The French U21 international was a mainstay under Niko Kovac, but has found his playing time more limited since the arrival of Philippe Clement. It remains to be seen whether Monaco would entertain the prospect of Diop leaving, but fierce local rivals OGC Nice would reportedly be keen on prising the young forward away from Monaco. According to Nice Matin, his is a profile “that pleases” the Riviera club.

 

 

Photo by Luke Entwistle