More than 73,000 visitors packed the Grimaldi Forum this summer to trace Monaco’s century-long romance with the motor car. Running from 1st July to 6th September, the major summer exhibition ‘Monaco & l’automobile, de 1893 à nos jours’ drew 73,077 visitors across 67 days – averaging nearly 1,100 people a day.
The turnout secured the exhibition fifth place in the cultural centre’s all-time summer rankings, sitting just behind 2025’s Pompidou masterworks showcase (76,500) and tying with 2008’s Reines d’Égypte.
For the Grimaldi Forum, dedicating its flagship summer slot to cars was a calculated risk. “We didn’t know exactly how the public would react,” admits general director Sylvie Biancheri, adding: “These numbers reflect both the relevance of Rodolphe Rapetti’s project and the public’s deep attachment to this history.”
130 years of racing and royalty
Spanning 3,500 square metres, the curation brought together more than 50 authentic vehicles tied directly to the Principality, backed by rare archives from the Automobile Club de Monaco.
The floor plan moved chronologically through milestones including the late-19th-century concours d’élégance, the birth of the Rallye Monte-Carlo in 1911, and the inaugural Grand Prix of 1929.
Star attractions included the 1953 Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith used for the 1956 wedding of Prince Rainier III and Grace Kelly, legendary rally cars, historic Formula 1 single-seaters, a Venturi Formula E car, and tributes to local racing icons Louis Chiron and Charles Leclerc.
Bridging more than a century of engineering, the exhibition closed by pairing a running 1893 Panhard & Levassor—the oldest operational petroleum-powered car—against Mona Luna, a lunar rover developed by Venturi Space slated for the moon by 2030.
Attracting a younger, new audience
Demographic data reveals the show successfully drew fresh crowds to the venue: 58% of attendees were first-time visitors to the Grimaldi Forum, and 55% were under 25. Furthermore, entries in the digital guestbook reflect a high level of satisfaction, scoring the exhibition an average of 9 out of 10.
Looking ahead to Magritte in 2027
With the engines now powered down, the Grimaldi Forum is already looking ahead to next summer. The venue confirmed its 2027 hit will transition entirely to surrealism, featuring more than 100 works by René Magritte sourced from public and private collections worldwide.
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Room 4 — The Monaco Grand Prix. Photo credit: Eric Zaragoza, Grimaldi Forum Monaco