A new law adopted in Monaco will see victims of sexual offenses and domestic violence, including children, get the compensation they deserve from the State if perpetrators are unable to pay-up.
On 7th December, the National Council voted unanimously in favour of a law put forward by the government, which aims to strengthen the protection of victims and the most vulnerable people in the Principality of Monaco.
The law allows victims of sexual and domestic violence, as well as other crimes, to be compensated by the State if the perpetrator goes bankrupt.
According to the government, the law will prevent victims of crimes being forced into financial difficulty, which would add to the moral trauma they have already suffered.
“It cannot be accepted that victims very often, after the trial, give up asserting their right to be compensated rather than be confronted again with their attacker,” said Minister of State Pierre Dartout in welcoming the adoption of the law. “The respect and protection due to victims must, in all circumstances, constitute the cornerstone of any criminal policy.”
The law is a result of work carried out under the leadership of the Interministerial Delegate for the promotion and protection of women’s rights, and undertaken by the Directorate of Legal Affairs and the Directorate of Judicial Services.
From the Antarctica-inspired Blue Ice down at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort to a champagne chalet on the Square Beaumarchais and a delicious crêpe stand in the Métropole Shopping Centre, here’s a guide to the best pop-up boutiques and bars in Monaco this Christmas.
Starting in the centre of Monte-Carlo, families will love the Christmas carousel and accompanying chalet serving crêpes, churros and hot drinks in the Jardin des Boulingrins.
The family favourite Christmas carousel in the Jardin des Boulingrins. Photo by Monaco Life
More festive treats can be found at the Métropole Shopping Centre where pop-ups such as the dedicated crêpes stand can be found at Level 0. Other pop-ups in the mall include: Maison Sacher and its famous Sacher Torte; Panettone Vogue; and Carolina Cake.
Two pop-up experiences await at the Hôtel de Paris. Firstly, there’s the beautiful Christmas floristry store from Stanislas Ducreux, which is selling a range of stunning gifts, decorations and miniature trees from Monday to Saturday throughout the holiday season.
Stanislas Ducreux’s florist pop-up at the Hôtel de Paris. Photo by Monaco Life
Then there is the opulent Winter Garden on the patio of the Hôtel de Paris (main photo), which has been adorned with twinkling trees, wooden sleighs, glowing candles and chandeliers, and elegant glasshouses designed to echo the cosy dining rooms of traditional chalets.
A short walk away is the Square Beaumarchais and the Hôtel Hermitage, which is hosting an outdoor champagne chalet pop-up until 5th January 2024. From the faux snowy terrace, visitors can quaff Veuve Clicquot champagne and enjoy luxurious accoutrements of foie gras and caviar. This sophisticated enclave is open daily.
Over on the Avenue de Monte-Carlo, the sea-facing street near the Casino de Monte-Carlo, more than a dozen Swiss-style wooden chalets have been erected. Here you can find a treasure trove of goodies, including gifts for friends and family as well as treats for yourself.
Finally, down at the Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort is an Antarctica-inspired pop-up bar by the name of Blue Ice. Running until the end of February 2024, the usual Blue Gin venue has been transformed into a polar world complete with igloos, firs, stalactites and a very on-theme cocktail menu. Blue Ice is an evening destination open from 6.30pm until 1.30am that will be hosting resident DJ Nicolas Saad on the weekends.
Blue Gin at Monte-Carlo Bay Hotel & Resort has become Blue Ice for the winter. Photo credit: Monte-Carlo SBM
Monaco’s Ward Moretti gallery is currently showing the Pieter and Olga Dreesmann Collection of works by Pablo Picasso, an acquisition that spans more than two decades and explores Picasso’s different artistic styles.
Dutch collector Pieter Dreesmann began his Picasso collection in 1998, maintaining a long-held family passion for art that began with his great-grandfather and continued through the line to his father Anton, who collected Old Master paintings and furniture.
Pieter was at the Galerie Cazeau-Beraudi in Paris when he spotted a little Blue period drawing by Picasso and immediately became infatuated. During this acquisition, he asked the gallery to give him the five most important books about the artist and began what would become an in-depth study of Picasso and his work.
It was at this point that London dealer James Roundell, who famously auctioned van Gogh’s ‘Sunflowers’ for a record $39.9 million in 1987, came on board to advise Pieter in his acquisitions. The North Londoner spent the next 25 years helping Pieter and his wife Olga build a collection of 32 Picassos – a survey of the artist’s drawing style from his Blue period starting in 1899 to the year 1960, the last dated work in the Dreesmann collection.
London dealer James Roundell at Ward Morretti Monaco for the Dreesmann Collection presentation. Photo by Monaco Life
“We tried to find work that shows Picasso in his different styles – and he almost had a different style and different subject matter for every day,” explained Roundell during a private tour of the collection at Monaco’s Ward Moretti gallery. “It was quite an intellectual exercise, and also very unusual to work with a client with a specific target and plan over 25 years. Today’s enthusiasts buy works, they’re not really collectors. Peter and Olga are real collectors; they love looking for works, researching them, acquiring them, thinking about them and presenting them.”
Significantly, it is a collection that was built to be lived with. The works were displayed on one entire wall of the Dreesmann family home, framed in detailed 16th and 17th century Italian and Spanish frames. The idea was to create a collection rather than to acquire separate, unrelated works. No matter what they selected, the prime importance was both the quality of the objects and how any new acquisition might relate to works already in the collection.
The Dreesmanns’ Picasso collection hung on one wall in their home. Credit: Picture Succession Picasso DACS London 2023
“Pieter didn’t have 10 million to throw at a piece,” said Roundell. “Indeed you could spend 30 million on an old painting by Picasso. Yet you can buy this whole collection for that. So, you really get value in the drawings that perhaps you don’t find in the paintings.”
Moreso, this preference for drawings is based on the collector’s belief that works on paper are more immediate, more delicate than paintings; they are an intimate reveal of an artist’s passion and emotion.
For example, Picasso’s portrait of Carles Casagemas (1899-1900) is one of the most significant in the Dreesmann Collection. This crayon and watercolour sketch was reproduced in an obituary of Casagemas after he committed suicide the year after it was first created. The death of Picasso’s dear friend, the young poet, is said to have instigated Picasso’s Blue period, which features works with the subjects of life and death.
1900-1901 La Danseuse Sada Yacco / 1937 Femme hurlant sa douleur. Credit: Succession Picasso DACS, London 2023
Another highlight in this collection is La Danseuse Sada Yacco, a striking pastel, crayon and black ink on paper piece from 1900 or 1901, which depicts Japanese actress Sadayakko Kawakami, known as Sada Yacco. Trained as a geisha and married to a popular actor and director, Otojirō Kawakami, she first performed in European theatres at the turn of the century. This, said Roundell, is perhaps the beginnings of a theatre poster, but it was never realised as a completed project.
There are works that celebrate the Côte d’Azur, like Sur la terrasse (30 August 1933), in which Picasso transformed his lover Marie-Thérése’s head into a sculpture and set it on a plinth on a pavement surrounded by trees and the typical red-tiled roofs of Provençal buildings. There is also the pastel Trois baigneuses, Juan-les-Pins (1920), which depicts bathers at the beach, an ode to the Mediterranean and the place where Picasso and his first wife Olga would spend their summer holidays.
Adding depth to this collection are sculptures and ceramics.
Pieter and Olga Dreesmann
Each artwork and its provenance – predominantly Picasso’s family members and lovers’ estates – has been explained in detail in an extensive catalogue created with Picasso specialist Marilyn McCully.
Money from the sale will go towards acquiring the Dreesmanns’ next collection, the Dr. Anton C. R. Dreesmann Fellowship at the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and to various philanthropic causes linked to the care of children with genetic disorders and special needs.
Monaco is the last in a year-long showing of the Dreesmanns’ Picasso collection that began at Ward Moretti London and featured in their galleries in Paris and New York. It will be on display until the end of this month.
“Having witnessed how Pieter and Olga have nurtured this high calibre, scholarly collection with James Roundell’s insight and advice over the last 25 years, it is a privilege to now be entrusted with the sale of these rare and important Picassos to new, discerning collectors and institutions,” said Emma Ward.
