The Yacht Club of Monaco will host the 18th edition of the La Belle Classe Superyachts Economic Symposium on Wednesday, 5th February, focusing on the yachting industry’s economic transformation in response to environmental regulations.
The symposium, initiated by the Yacht Club in 2008, has become an annual fixture where key players in luxury yachting gather to exchange ideas and discuss sector challenges. This year’s theme addresses how the industry is preparing for 2035 environmental standards.
Industry-wide participation
The event brings together yacht owners, shipyards, brokers, designers, captains, bankers, maritime experts, specialised lawyers, port directors, and boat show organisers. Organised as a dinner-debate, the symposium provides a setting for discussing economic prospects, challenges and innovations affecting the yachting industry worldwide.
The gathering highlights the economic influence of yachting globally, as well as its specific impact on the South of France and Monaco.
Platform for strategic dialogue
The symposium serves as a strategic reflection opportunity where participants can share expertise, enrich their knowledge, and explore collaboration opportunities. The format encourages direct exchange among decision-makers across different segments of the yachting sector.
According to the Yacht Club, the event embodies the spirit of excellence and innovation that characterises the organisation, contributing to the ongoing development and performance of the yachting industry.
AS Monaco Basketball recorded their ninth straight win in France’s top basketball division, with a 113-86 victory against Le Portel on Sunday.
The outcome was never really a doubt at the Salle Gaston Médecin, where the league leaders faced the competition’s weakest side. Still, Portel showed plenty of fight despite being outmatched.
Coach Vassilis Spanoulis rested Kevarrius Hayes after he suffered a knock in Friday’s Euroleague match against Virtus Bologna. Mike James, David Michineau, Terry Tarpey, Alpha Diallo and Daniel Theis formed the starting five.
Le Portel’s Jarrell Smith kept his side competitive in the opening stages, scoring five early points. Meanwhile, Tarpey was active on both ends of the court, while James scored through a foul and added two free throws to give Monaco a 16-13 lead.
Smith hit back with a three-pointer to level the scores at 16-16, then put Portel ahead with another three to make it 19-16. However, Nikola Mirotic made an immediate impact off the bench, scoring four quick points and setting up Elie Okobo for a three-pointer. Okobo added another from distance to give Monaco a 26-19 lead after the first quarter.
Nikola Mirotic during the game, photo credit: AS Monaco Basket
Monaco builds a commanding lead
In the second quarter, Matthew Strazel assisted Nemanja Nedovic for a three pointer, and Okobo’s free throws extended Monaco’s advantage to 31-21. Smith remained dangerous for Portel, having scored 15 of his team’s 26 points, and helped reduce the deficit to five points at 33-28. Okobo responded by scoring through contact to steady Monaco.
Juhann Begarin’s three pointer pushed the lead to 11 points, and Monaco went into the break leading 53-50.
The third quarter saw Monaco quickly re-establish control. Smith briefly cut the gap to eight points at 58-50, but Daniel Theis, Tarpey and Alpha Diallo responded to restore a 15 point lead at 67-52.
The quarter became a stop-start with multiple fouls leading to frequent free throws. Tarpey dominated the board as Monaco maintained their advantage. Okobo extended the lead to 20 points for the first time at 79-59, and Monaco entered the final quarter leading 82-61.
The fourth quarter offered little drama. Monaco managed the game professionally without needing to be at their best, surpassing 100 points to win by 27.
Okobo finished as Monaco’s top scorer with 20 points, while Mirotic added 17 and James 16.
The victory keeps Monaco’s position at the top of the Betclic Elite standings. They now turn their attention to Euroleague action, with away fixtures at Kaunas and Munich in the coming week.
For 153 years, Nice’s Carnival has predominantly featured male monarchs and masculine themes. But this year the carnival is staging a royal revolution. The 2026 edition, running from 11th February to 1st March, boldly proclaims ‘Long Live the Queen!’.
“After decades of male rule, the time has come to celebrate femininity with an ambitious and symbolic theme,” say organisers, nodding towards an evolution for an event that dates back to 1873.
The two-week carnival features spectacular parades including massive floats, giant character heads, and street performances from across the world. It encompasses both daytime flower parades, where costumed performers shower spectators with blooms, and illuminated evening parades that bring the city alive.
The grand Charivari kicks off the festive calendar on Wednesday 11th February at 4pm at the Carnival House with free entry for all. Three days later, La Carnavalina offers a free children’s parade at 2pm, followed by the Opening Parade of Lights at 9pm in Place Masséna. Flower parades then take place on the 18th, 21st, 25th and 28th February at 2.30pm. Evening illuminated parades light up the city on the 17th, 21st, 24th and 28th February at 8.30pm.
Special events complete the programme, including Lou Queernaval on Friday 27th February at 8pm, before the traditional Burning of the King with fireworks on Saturday 28th February at 10:45pm.
Planning your visit
Tickets vary by zone and event, with standing pedestrian tickets starting from €7 and seating tickets reaching €31. However, those arriving fully costumed can access pedestrian zones free of charge during evening parades, though spaces are subject to availability.
Advance booking has become essential, however, with several events including the Veglione’s Ball at the Opera already sold out.
Meanwhile, the Carnival Village on Promenade du Paillon serves as the festival’s free-entry hub, opening with a special nighttime inauguration on Friday 13th February at 6pm and later operating daily through 1st March from 11am to 6pm. There, visitors can explore workshops, artistic installations, local food stalls and live entertainment.
When opportunity knocked at Mareterra, Sylvie Thévenoz didn’t hesitate. Within a week of getting the green light, Dalí Universe and Lart Universe had transformed a 300-square-metre space at 12 Quai du Petit Portier into Monaco’s newest contemporary art gallery, opening just before Christmas with a collection that represents a remarkable coup for the Principality.
“When we got the green light to take this space at Mareterra, we moved quickly,” Sylvie Thévenoz, the exhibition curator, tells Monaco Life’s Cassandra Tanti. “We sent everything within a week.”
The result is an intimate encounter with one of the 20th century’s most influential artists, anchored by the world’s largest collection of Dalí sculptures – a collection with an extraordinary provenance that traces directly back to the artist himself.
A friendship forged in 1962
The story behind the collection is as surreal as Dalí’s work itself. Beniamino Levi, president and founder of both Lart Universe and Dalí Universe, was a close friend of Salvador Dalí, meeting him in 1962. That friendship gave Levi the rights to hold the sculptural works of Salvador Dalí, and he established a foundry in Switzerland where all the sculptures were made.
“He has the biggest collection of Dalí sculptures in the world,” Thévenoz explains, a fact that makes the Mareterra gallery a significant addition to Monaco’s cultural landscape.
Photo credit: Cassandra Tanti
The gallery showcases original and significant works, highlighted by the important oil on canvas Twist en el studio de Velázquez (1962) alongside a substantial presentation of original sculptures. But perhaps most remarkable are the pieces many visitors won’t have seen before: Dalí’s designs for ballet, exclusive drawings on cardboard complete with his handwriting and adaptations.
“We’ve just received stunning works that Dalí created for the Labyrinthe ballet — pieces from 1941 that haven’t been widely shared,” Thévenoz says.
Art to be lived
The gallery operates under a philosophy called Art to be Lived, deliberately breaking from traditional gallery conventions. “This isn’t a place where people have to come and buy something,” Thévenoz emphasises. “Of course we’d like to sell pieces, but primarily we want people to experience the gallery, to bring their children and discover these works.”
The approach seems particularly suited to Mareterra, Monaco’s newest district, where residents and visitors are still discovering what the neighbourhood will become. The free admission and welcoming atmosphere invite casual exploration rather than intimidating reverence.
Alongside Dalí, the gallery features works by contemporary artist Patrick Rubinstein, whose pieces change depending on viewing angle — perfect for engaging younger visitors. “The Rubinstein works are remarkable, the piece transforms depending on which side you’re viewing it from,” Thévenoz notes. “These kinds of interactive pieces are wonderful for children.”
A single piece by artist Patrick Rubinstein, seen from two different angles. Photo credit: Cassandra Tanti
Global reach, Monaco ambitions
The Mareterra gallery is currently operating on a temporary basis, but the team is working to establish a permanent presence in Monaco. It’s one of four such galleries – others operate in Italy and Luxembourg – and runs until the end of March in its current form.
For Monaco’s newest district, still defining its identity, a permanent Dalí presence would represent a significant cultural anchor. The gallery plans to rotate works and is already expanding to accommodate additional artists and artworks from the collection. Large screens featuring Dalí are planned as the space evolves.
The broader Dalí Universe operation spans the globe. The organisation manages a permanent museum at Dalí Montmartre in Paris and currently has a 900-square-metre exhibition touring in Shanghai, featuring large sculptures reaching up to seven metres high. They’ve even created an immersive metaverse experience where visitors can don virtual reality goggles and enter Dalí’s universe, giving life to his sculptures like the space elephant.
Over the years, Dalí Universe has organised exhibitions and museums across Berlin, Vienna, Shanghai, Singapore, and numerous Italian cities including Matera, Montepulciano, Modena, Florence, Rome and Venice, attracting more than 12 million visitors worldwide.
Dali’s ‘Space Elephant’ and ‘Otorhinological Head of Venus’. Photo credit: Cassandra Tanti
Understanding the inexplicable
Dalí’s approach to his own work was famously enigmatic. Someone once asked him in New York how he would explain his work, and he replied that even he didn’t know how to explain it. He wanted people to use their imagination rather than be directed by the artist, to discover their own interpretations.
That philosophy extends to the commissions that produced some of the gallery’s most unique pieces. Dalí was asked to design Tarot cards; for ballet, he created designs for costumes that Coco Chanel herself made, bringing his surrealist imagination to the stage.
The melting clock remains one of Dalí’s most famous images, but Thévenoz hopes visitors will discover lesser-known works. “Many pieces here aren’t as well known – the ballet designs from 1941, for instance – and that’s what makes this collection special.”
When pressed for her favourite piece in the collection, Thévenoz doesn’t hesitate: “The space elephant.”
For collectors, the gallery can arrange shipping anywhere in the world. But the real ambition is broader: to make Dalí accessible, to invite curiosity, to let families wander through surrealism on a Sunday afternoon.
In the meantime, the doors are open, admission is free, and Salvador Dalí’s imagination awaits at the edge of the Mediterranean, in Monaco’s newest quarter.
Nearly 400 schoolchildren from Monaco packed the Théâtre des Variétés on Thursday to watch and vote for their favourite short films addressing global development challenges, as part of the 15th edition of the Cinema for Change festival.
The event, supported by the Prince’s Government through the Directorate of International Cooperation, brought together 18 classes from six schools across the Principality for the festival’s Children’s Prize category. Later that evening, students from Sciences Po Paris’s Menton campus convened to debate and select their preferred film for the Student Prize.
Festival founder Marc Obéron presented six short films from around the world, each illustrating aspects of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals adopted by the United Nations in September 2015. The goals address issues ranging from poverty and hunger to climate action and quality education.
Monaco votes join international jury
The votes cast by Monaco students will be combined with those from young jury members in France and seven countries that partner with Monaco’s development cooperation programme: Burkina Faso, Burundi, Madagascar, Mali, Morocco, Mauritania and Tunisia.
This international dimension gives Monaco schoolchildren the opportunity to participate in a broader conversation about global development challenges alongside their counterparts in developing countries directly affected by many of the issues portrayed in the films.
Fifteen years of youth engagement
For the 15th consecutive year, the Directorate of International Cooperation has backed the festival’s three Youth Prizes – covering Children, Secondary School Students, and University Students – with the aim of raising awareness about development issues and international solidarity among young people.
The festival uses cinema as a medium to engage students with complex global issues in an accessible format. Short films allow for focused storytelling that can illustrate specific development challenges while remaining suitable for classroom settings and youth audiences.
Sciences Po partnership continues
The evening screening for Sciences Po students reflects a partnership dating back to 2014 between the Directorate of International Cooperation and the university’s Mediterranean-Middle East campus in Menton. The collaboration aims to sensitise students to development questions, human rights and the fight against global poverty.
The five films selected for the Student Prize category typically address more complex aspects of development challenges, suited to university-level analysis and debate. The format encourages students to engage critically with how development issues are portrayed and understood.
Combining education with advocacy
Cinema for Change represents an approach to development education that moves beyond traditional classroom learning. By asking students to watch, evaluate and vote on films, the festival positions them as active participants in conversations about sustainable development rather than passive recipients of information.
The festival’s broader mission centres on using film to drive social change and raise awareness of pressing global issues. The youth prizes form part of this strategy, building awareness among younger generations who will inherit responsibility for achieving the Sustainable Development Goals by their 2030 target date.
The prize ceremony for Cinema for Change will take place on Saturday 11th April in Paris, where the winners selected by youth juries across multiple countries will be announced.
AS Monaco ran riot against Stade Rennais (4-0) as Sébastien Pocogonoli’s side secured all three points in Ligue 1 for the first time since the end of November and a 1-0 win over PSG.
The signs of renewal were already there before Rennes rocked up at the Stade Louis II on Saturday night. Sébastien Pocognoli identified a commonality in Monaco’s last two matches, a “mindset”. But there was a clearer common thread, defensive solidity. Against Le Havre and then against Juventus in midweek, Les Monégasques kept clean sheets. It marked a dramatic departure from previous games, notably the historic defeat to Real Madrid in the Champions League (1-6) and the humiliation against Lorient just days earlier (1-3), after which Les Merlus’ manager, Olivier Pantaloni, said that he felt Monaco’s “fear” every time his side got on the ball.
It is in this sense that this Monaco side have become unrecognisable from the one that floundered week after week. Never under Pocognoli have they looked so assured defensively. Against Juventus, it was the decision to revert to a back three and to put captain Denis Zakaria at the heart of it that was key, a tweak with which Pocognoli persisted on Saturday night. But having fixed one problem, against Rennes, another one had to be fixed.
Monaco heed Kohn’s words and then some
Those strong defensive displays came at a cost; Monaco failed to score in both matches. “We kept a clean sheet twice, but we didn’t score. It is the first goal to keep the clean sheet, and the focus is now on maybe scoring the goal to win a game 1-0,” said Philipp Kohn after that draw against Juve. Monaco did much more than that, without sacrificing what made them a more formidable opponent in recent games.
It was with the first clear-cut chance of the game that the Principality club opened the scoring, as Folarin Balogun threaded a ball through the legs of Jérémy Jacquet for Ansu Fati to run onto. The Spaniard finished past Brice Samba. That would be just the start. Balogun’s effort on the stroke of half-time was impressively stopped by Samba, but Monaco wouldn’t be denied for long.
Maghnes Akliouche came on at half-time and needed just five minutes to double Monaco’s lead. He was in the right place after Kassoum Ouattara’s shot cannoned off the inside of the post into the path of Aleksandr Golovin, whose miscontrol fell perfectly for Akliouche to tap into the empty net. A comedic goal, but they count all the same.
The ‘most complete match’ of the season, says Pocognoli
The next goal was always going to be crucial, and Rennes thought they had it when Esteban Lepaul slid home, only for the offside flag to cut celebrations short. And then came the sucker-punch. Seven minutes earlier, the deficit was momentarily reduced to one goal and then it jumped to three, as Mika Biereth played the ball through for Mamadou Coulibaly, who put the ball through Samba’s legs.
The resistance broken, chances were easy to come by. Biereth almost got in on the act, but his shot was met by a strong Samba save, but a fourth would be added, the Dane teeing up Stanis Idumbo for his first goal in a Monaco shirt. “It was our most complete match of the season,” said Pocognoli post-match, who spoke of the game as a “reference point” going forward. These are the performances, he recognised, that would have to be repeated, if the Principality club are to get back into European contention and reach their objectives come the end of the season.
