The Monaco International Dog Show returned over the weekend, welcoming over 1,300 dogs representing 258 breeds from 27 countries for two days of competitions and exhibitions.
Founded in 1927 by Princess Charlotte of Monaco, the Monaco Kennel Club’s international exhibition continues to be one of the Principality’s longstanding canine events and is set to celebrate its centenary in 2027.
The annual event, organised by the Monaco Kennel Club, welcomed international competitors, judges, and spectators. This year’s edition featured nine international judges from France, Italy, Spain, Ireland, and South Africa. Honour breeds throughout the weekend included the Bichon Frisé, Havanese, Chinese Crested Dog, and Poodle.
Beyond the judging rings, one of the highlights of the weekend was simply walking through the venue itself. Dogs of every breed imaginable were the centre of attention throughout the event. Moving from one area to another often meant stopping every few moments to admire another dog passing through the Chapiteau.
The weekend featured competitions across a variety of categories and groups, culminating in a Best in Show judging on Sunday. The top prize was awarded to Bach, a Chow Chow. Second place went to a black Poodle named Dragon, and third place went to Ikebana, a Whippet.
Top Marques Monaco has closed its 21st edition as the most successful in the show’s history, with exhibitors rebooking for 2027 before the first public day had concluded and high-value sales completed across every hall.
More than 235 supercars, classic cars and motorbikes were exhibited over four and a half days, with organisers predicting final attendance of more than 22,000 visitors. The commercial activity matched the footfall: supercars worth up to seven figures changed hands throughout the show, one classic car dealer sold every vehicle on his stand, and a single watch exhibitor moved 18 timepieces at a minimum price of €30,000 each. The jewellery section also confirmed multiple sales, according to organisers.
The collector effect
Much of the credit for the exceptional results has been given to the inaugural Collectors’ Private Viewing, held on Wednesday 6th May from 5pm to 7pm and sponsored by new partner Ex Jets. For the first time, serious collectors were given exclusive access to the entire show — including the debut of the new Luxury Tuners Hall — before the VIP Avant Première cocktail. Exhibitors reported confirmed deals within hours, with 2027 bookings made the same evening.
Mansory claimed top honours in the Luxury Tuners Hall at this year’s Top Marques. Photo credit: Cassandra Tanti
Sixteen world debuts
Top Marques Monaco has established itself as a platform for global launches, and 2026 delivered 16 world debuts. Among the most talked-about: the Giamaro Automobili Krafla, a hypercar with a naturally aspirated V12 fitted with four turbochargers producing 2,157 horsepower; the Baltasar Revolt from Barcelona, reaching 100 km/h in 2.5 seconds; and OQTA, a new German manufacturer making its debut with a vehicle aimed squarely at the hyper-luxury collector market. The Audi RS5 also made its Monaco debut, presenting a plug-in hybrid combining a twin-turbo V6 with electric power.
OQTA went on to win the first-ever Top Marques Visitors Award in the Supercar category. Car & Car from Italy took first prize in the Classic Cars section, while Mansory claimed top honours in the Luxury Tuners Hall with the Mansory Azur and Mansory Emperor Signature.
Photo credit: Cassandra Tanti
Star power and royal recognition
The 21st edition was officially inaugurated on 7th May by Monaco Mayor Georges Marsan, accompanied by Minister of the Interior Lionel Beffre and National Council President Thomas Brezzo. Prince Albert II paid a private visit alongside Minister of State Christophe Mirmand.
The show also attracted Paul Pogba, members of the AS Monaco Basketball Team, Fernando Alonso, Arthur Leclerc and Mika Häkkinen, alongside automotive influencers Shmee150 and GMK — the latter arriving with 12 of his own supercars and spending an afternoon with fans, extending the show’s reach to millions online.
Photo credit: Cassandra Tanti
“We had exhibitors rebooking for next year before we’d even opened to the public, which is unprecedented,” said Emeric Garcia, Director of Top Marques Monaco. “This edition is definitive proof that Top Marques Monaco has a vital role in the luxury automotive market. We’re not resting on this success. 2027 will be bigger, better, and even more ambitious.”
The 2026 edition was the first held under the Informa Prestige Monaco umbrella, which also encompasses the Monaco Yacht Show, Art Monte-Carlo and BOAT International.
On Sunday 17 May at 3pm, AS Monaco Rugby will host one of its biggest matches of the season as the club heads into the return leg of the Fédérale 2 round of 32 playoffs.
This high-stakes match, taking place at Stade Prince Héréditaire Jacques, is a defining moment for Monaco. Ahead of such a pivotal match, the club is encouraging supporters, families, friends, and rugby fans across the Principality to come together and support the team while helping create an electric playoff atmosphere.
AS Monaco Rugby will organise a special pre-match lunch before kick-off, giving supporters a chance to gather around a traditional méchoui d’agneau (spit roast lamb) before the game. The experience, including entry to the match, is priced at €35, with only 50 places available.
With the opportunity to advance on the line, the club hopes to see a strong home crowd turn out in full support to push the team through one of the most important matches of the season.
One of the most talked-about debuts at Top Marques Monaco 2026 was not a road car. McLaren’s MCL-HY — the hypercar the British manufacturer will campaign at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and in the FIA World Endurance Championship from 2027 — made its Monaco appearance fresh from its global reveal on 4th May, and the crowds it drew throughout the show reflected just how significant this moment is in McLaren’s history.
It is the first time since the F1 GTR’s legendary outright victory at Le Mans in 1995 that McLaren has built a car for the top class of endurance racing. Built to LMDh regulations, the MCL-HY combines a lightweight carbon fibre monocoque with a twin-turbocharged V6 race engine paired with a hybrid system, delivering up to 707PS to the rear axle. Its striking test livery — revealed at Top Marques in papaya and carbon — is inspired by the McLaren M6A, the car Bruce McLaren once dreamed of taking to Le Mans, rooting the MCL-HY firmly in the marque’s racing heritage.
Neil Underwood, Head of McLaren Track Cars, was on hand at Top Marques to explain the programme — and the remarkable client experience being built around it.
“This is the first car since the McLaren F1 GTR — the one that won Le Mans — that a customer can own a derivative of,” he told Monaco Life’s Cassandra Tanti. “They can own one outright. That’s a fascinating story in itself.”
Photo credit: Cassandra Tanti
More than a racing return
Running alongside the McLaren Hypercar Team’s WEC programme is Project Endurance — a separate but parallel initiative built around the MCL-HY GTR, a distinct track-only car inspired by the race car but engineered exclusively for private clients. The GTR will never race at Le Mans; instead it is designed to give its owners the closest possible experience to the real thing.
The GTR ditches the mandatory hybrid system in favour of a purer, lighter setup powered solely by the 2.9-litre twin-turbo racing engine, producing around 730PS — engineered for the track without the regulatory complexity of the race car.
But the car itself, Underwood is keen to stress, is only part of what clients are buying into.
“Owning a car is so much more than just owning a car nowadays,” he said. “We’ll take them to Dallara in Italy, where the car is being built. We’ll take them to Le Mans as our guests, where they’ll be in the pits listening in on the team principal’s communications during the race. It will be a really immersive experience.”
Deliveries of the MCL-HY GTR begin towards the end of 2027, after which each owner receives a fully supported two-year track programme — six events and 12 days of driving — included in the package.
As for the price? “We don’t really quote the prices of our cars,” Underwood said. “But let’s say it’s in the millions of euros.”
“This is an exciting moment in McLaren’s history,” said Nick Collins, Chief Executive Officer, McLaren Automotive. “Those who come with us on this journey will see and feel the absolute best of McLaren, and how our racing heritage is shaping our future more than ever.”
The bigger picture
The MCL-HY’s return to Le Mans completes the final piece of McLaren’s bid for the Triple Crown of Motorsport — victory at the Monaco Grand Prix, the Indianapolis 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans. With the team already competing at the top of Formula 1 and IndyCar, the WEC programme beginning in 2027 is the missing piece of an ambition McLaren is now uniquely positioned to pursue.
Monaco has strengthened the legal framework governing the management of jointly owned buildings, with new legislation requiring every co-owners’ association to hold its funds in a dedicated account — fully ring-fenced from the finances of the syndic managing the property.
The amendments to the 2007 co-ownership law, presented to the National Council by Finance Minister Frédéric Cottalorda on Tuesday 12th May, address a straightforward but important risk: that funds paid by co-owners into a building’s communal pot could be exposed in the event of a syndic’s insolvency or legal difficulties. Under the new rules, those funds are explicitly the property of the co-owners’ association and cannot be seized by a syndic’s personal creditors or drawn into any enforcement or insolvency proceedings against them.
The legislation also requires that the bank holding these accounts must have its registered office or a branch in the Principality — a provision welcomed by both the Monaco Real Estate Chamber and the Monegasque Association of Financial Activities, who had pushed for the shift from a “separate account” model to the more precisely defined “individualised account” framework now adopted.
The law comes into force on 1st July 2027. Syndics with mandates already in progress will have three months from that date to bring their arrangements into compliance.
A new global initiative inviting people to spend 10 minutes doing something kind for someone else launched on Tuesday at the Princess Grace Irish Library in Monaco, brought to life by Donegal-born entrepreneur Troy Armour and Miss Ireland Caoimhe Kenny.
The 30 Days of Good Deeds campaign, running throughout June, is built around a simple chain reaction: do one kind act for another person, share it on social media, then nominate three friends to do the same within 24 hours. The deed itself can be anything — walking a neighbour’s dog, calling on an elderly person, leaving an encouraging note under a stranger’s windscreen wiper, or quietly doing a chore someone usually faces alone.
The campaign is the founding initiative of the Mo Chuisle Foundation — its name drawn from the Irish phrase meaning “my pulse, my heart” — with charitable work focused on cancer care, period poverty and creative education.
Why Monaco, and why this library
The choice of the Princess Grace Irish Library carries its own quiet significance. Prince Albert II’s great-grandfather John Henry Kelly hailed from Newport, Co. Mayo, and the library — which houses Princess Grace’s personal book collection, including an original copy of James Joyce’s Ulysses — has long been a keeper of the Grimaldi family’s Irish roots. Princess Grace was the first foreign head of state to make a state visit to the Republic of Ireland, in 1961.
“The goal of the foundation to spread kindness across the world resonates with Princess Grace’s own mission in life,” said Library Director Paula Farquharson — a sentiment echoed in Grace Kelly’s own words: “I would like to be remembered as someone who accomplished useful deeds, and who was a kind and loving person.”
The people behind it
For Troy Armour, the campaign draws on something rooted in his upbringing. “I grew up in Donegal, where looking out for your neighbour wasn’t a campaign — it was just what people did,” he said. “Ten minutes. One person. One kind thing. Then pass it on to three more people.”
Caoimhe Kenny brought her own cause to the foundation. “I wanted to make sure that ending period poverty was one of the goals of Mo Chuisle,” she said. “Up to 24% of girls miss at least one week of school a year because they don’t have access to sanitary products.”
To take part, visit 30daysofgooddeeds.com or follow @30daysofgooddeeds from 1st June.
