Monaco Auction Week: A fresh focus on design in 2023

Artcurial’s Monaco Auction Week is back this summer with an incredible array of watches, jewellery and handbags, but there’s also a new-for-this-year addition: a design department.  

For some seriously impressive luxury accessories, sculptures and objets d’art, Artcurial’s summer Monaco Auction Week can’t be beat. The event, planned for 16th to 19th July at the Hotel Hermitage, is always a popular occasion, bringing together some of the most exquisite pieces to be had, including rare gems from private collections that haven’t been on the market for years, if ever. 

WATCHES 

The watch auctions are split into two with the men’s timepieces going under the gavel on 16th July at 6pm and the women’s on 17th July at 2pm. 

A plethora of rare and vintage watches will be up for sale, including a 2007 men’s FP JOURNE Tourbillon Souverain platinum wristwatch with power reserves that is estimated to go for €150,000 to €300,000.  

The FP JOURNE Tourbillon Souverain 2007. Photo credit: Artcurial

Le Temps est Féminin, the women’s sale, features a 1968 Daytona Panda with a cream dial and black sub-dials. A piece like this is almost impossible to find except at exclusive events like Monaco Auction Week.  

“For several years, Le Temps est Féminin has established itself as the most glamourous watchmaking event on the French Riviera. Whether it’s the astonishing creativity of the 1950s, or the extravagance of the 1970s, our next sale will discover original pieces that we rarely see appear on the market,” said Marie Sanna-Legrand, Director of the Collection Watchmaking Department at Artcurial. 

JEWELLERY  

Also on 16th and 17th July, at 2pm and 6pm respectively, the auction house will hope to revisit the success of their winter event in January, which saw fine jewellery and stones sales bring in €3.3 million.  

This department is packed with treasures, including a gorgeous platinum ring set with an 8.44 carat pear-shaped diamond, certified colour I with VVS2 purity, with an estimated going price of €60,000 to €80,000.  

“Boucheron, Mauboussin, Cartier, Van Cleef & Arpels, Buccelatti, René Boivin, etc… Our next sale already augurs surprises and very good auctions… Lovers of precious stones will be spoiled for choice in the colors: white, blue, red or green,” enthuses Julie Valade, Director of the Artcurial Jewellery Department.  

HANDBAGS 

Hermès and other luxury brands come up on 18th July at 2pm. For two decades, this has been a highlight of the auction season in the Principality and once again, the choices will be unbeatable. One example is a 2018 Hermès limited edition Birkin Touch 30 in sapphire blue bull calf leather and navy blue matte alligator. This elegant bag is set to be sold for between €22,000 and €32,000.  

The 2018 Hermès limited edition Birkin Touch 30. Photo credit: Artcurial

SCULPTURES 

Also on 18th July, at 5pm, the fourth edition of the Monaco Sculptures auction will be held. Artcurial will take over gardens across the Principality in an incredible display of 40 or so pieces that will be on display until the end of July.  

NEW FOR 2023: DESIGN 

Finally on 19th July, a first for Artcurial’s Monaco Auction Week: a design showcase coming from a private collection of transalpine design. More than 90 pieces from architects and designers such as Gio Ponti, Gino Sarfatti, Fausto Melotti and Gabriella Crespi will be up for grabs along with exceptional pieces from the Campana Brothers, such as the Settimio cabinet. Only three of this piece exist, including one on display at the Museum of Decorative Arts in Paris. 

“It is an honor to present this magnificent collection of Italian design at the Artcurial luxe sales in Monaco,” said Justine Despretz, Artcurial’s Italian Design Consultant. “This collection tells us the story of a woman passionate and in love with art, architecture and design, but above all with Italian know-how and craftsmanship.”  

For a full list of all items at the auction and to see other events hosted by Artcurial, please click here. 

 

Do you have an event in Monaco or the French Riviera that you would like us to include in our What’s On section and events calendar? Please email editor@monacolife.net.  

 

Photos courtesy of Artcurial

 

Le Prince Chez Lui exhibition: Prince Rainier III at home

In a new exhibition, the Palace Archives and the Audiovisual Institute present 100 images of Prince Rainier III “at home” in the Palace and his other places of residence alongside other rare objects and documents.

Prince Rainier III was truly at home in the Palace of Monaco. He was the first ruler to be born there since Honoré IV in 1758, and he endeavored throughout his reign to restore and defend the identity of his country.

In this exhibition, as part of his centenary celebrations, his life and reign are presented from three perspectives.

Firstly, that of the Sovereign in the exercise of his functions, doing “paperwork” in the Palace surrounded by his employees.

It is in the Palace where he also received distinguished guests, that the major acts of political life took place and that the tradition of artistic patronage of the Princes of Monaco continues. It is here, also, where the public image of the Prince was patiently built through the media.

The second part of the exhibition explores the life of a man whose different homes correspond to the different ages of his life: the Palace of Monaco where he was born and grew up until his studies and the tumult of war, the Villa Iberia in Saint-Jean-Cap-Ferrat where the bachelor Prince stayed until his marriage to Grace Kelly, the Rocagel house he built for his family, and finally the Castle of Marchais, a historic residence of the Grimaldis since 1854.

“The personal passions of the Prince make it possible to understand his personality and his commitments. When he takes off the sovereign’s uniform or the clothes of the father of the family, Rainier puts on his work shirt to retire to his workshop, where he models wrought iron sculptures,” say the exhibition curators.

In the final stage of the exhibition, the “great hours” of the Prince at the Palace are evoked, from his years of apprenticeship at the end of the World War II to the paroxysms of the Franco-Monegasque crisis and the proclamation of a new constitution, through to the momentous gatherings with the Monegasque population.

The exhibition, titled Le Prince Chez Lui, Prince Rainier III en images: 1923 – 2005, was curated by Thomas Fouilleron and Vincent Vatrican. It will be on show in the Grands Appartements of the Prince’s Palace from 31stMay to 20th August 2023.

 

Do you have an event in Monaco or the French Riviera that you would like us to include in our What’s On section and events calendar? Please email editor@monacolife.net.  

 

SEE ALSO:

May 31st: Prince Rainier III’s 100th birthday celebrations

 

Photo taken from exhibition poster

 

 

John Chamberlain The Poetics of Scale in Monaco at Hauser and Wirth

Hauser and Wirth has unveiled its summer exhibition: one that pairs John Chamberlain’s early poetry with his sculptural series Gondolas and Tonks, works that epitomise the artists poetic approach to materials and scale.

It is the first time that Hauser and Wirth has shown a John Chamberlain solo exhibition here in Monaco.

Titled The Poetics of Scale, the premise is to focus on a body of work that the American artist made when he moved to his studio in Florida in the early 1980s.

John Chamberlain, born in Indiana in 1927, became known in the 1950s for using automobile parts for his sculptures; for welding and crushing them together. He is one of the most prominent post-war American sculptors, but he is associated with a variety of different movements. Many people interpret his sculptural technique as being allied to abstract Expressionism.

They also say his use of car parts and paint is allied to Action Painting: it’s very gestural and it has an emphasis on colour. He stayed for a time with Pop Artist Larry Rivers in New York, so pop artists saw him as a peer. At the same time, he was also being seen as a peer by the Minimalists because he was using industrial materials.

But in his mind, Chamberlain saw himself in Duchamp and the Readymade.

“John Chamberlain was allied to all of these movements, and yet none; he moved between them, and all of them were admirers of him. He built friendships and peer relationships with figures within all of the important post war mid-century art movements in the United States,” explains the exhibition’s Curator   Tanya Barson during a press tour.

Curator Tanya Barson, photo by Monaco Life

The Poetics of Scale is on show at the contemporary Hauser and Wirth gallery  in One Monte-Carlo all summer.

It picks up the story in 1980 when Chamberlain moved to the coast of Sarasota, Florida, when he arrived on his boat. He found a studio on the marina and began working on a commission using truck parts.

“He looks around his studio and sees the remnants of the trucks, which are actually the chassis’. They remind him of Venetian gondolas. You can see why he’s thinking about boats. He’s thinking about the really long horizontal form of a gondola and the form that these truck chassis gave him. But he’s combining that with more coloured, crushed parts of trucks to build up the forms here,” says Barson.

The Gondolas are each given a subtitle, named after a poet: one is called ‘Gondola Hart Crane’, the other ‘Gondola Marianne Moore’. “It’s The recurrence of that early influence of poets in these works.”

There is another reference to that influence in this exhibition, a series of early poems written by Chamberlain whilst he was at Black Mountain College, often addressed to his first wife Elaine; the subtle, romantic words are a stark contrast to the masculine, solid sculptures that dominate this exhibition space.

“There’s a lot of really interesting imagery here to do with women, to do with his relationships with women, but also to do with his relationship with other artists,” says our guide.

But the show is called The Poetics of Scale because at the same time as he was making these large works, he started another series, which he called the Tonks. They are small sculptures, a reference to the famous miniature Tonka trucks, which Chamberlain created using different car and truck parts.

A third sculpture, floor based, is called the Dhuha Ditty, another piece from his work in the early 80s.

John Chamberlain (1927 – 2011) Dhuha Ditty, 1983. Photo by Monaco Life

The international art house Hauser & Wirth opened a gallery in depths of One Monte-Carlo in the summer of 2021. It has since hosted contemporary exhibitions including Paul McCarthy’s Pirate Stew Pot, Amy Sherald’s ‘The World We Make’ , and Roni Horn’s ‘Sweet is the swamp with its secrets’.

“It’s an extraordinary pleasure to curate here. It’s an incredibly beautiful space,” says Tanya Barson. “It is a very large-scale gallery, but it is a context where you can show work of a different scale. We can show really large-scale works, and Gondolas being a case in point, these are really monumental sculptures, amongst the largest that Chamberlain made. You need to give them space and this is absolutely a beautiful gallery to show them in.”

John Chamberlain. The Poetics of Scale is on view until Saturday 2nd September 2023. The exhibition is free to attend and no advance booking is necessary.

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Do you have an event in Monaco or the French Riviera that you would like us to include in our What’s On section and events calendar? Please email editor@monacolife.net.  

 

Photo above of Gondolas by Monaco Life

 

SEE ALSO:

Monaco Art Week announces dates and participants for 5th edition

 

Monaco Art Week announces dates and participants for 5th edition

Monaco Art Week offers an insider’s peek into the Principality’s art and auction houses via a well-planned walking tour. The details of the anticipated 5th edition have just been released.

What started as a way to unite the local art scene has become a synergistic event filled with exchanges, professional meet-ups, exhibitions and round table chats that has extended its reach beyond the week into year-round initiatives.

Celebrating its 5th edition, this year’s Monaco Art Week will run from 4th to 9th July and, as usual, will follow a trail laid out through some of Monaco’s artiest neighbourhoods, namely, Monte-Carlo and Larvotto.

Running in conjunction with the artmonte-carlo international fair, Monaco Art Week also will coincide with the Grimaldi Forum’s big summer opening of ‘Monet in Full Light’, which starts 8th July, and the Ballets de Monte-Carlo’s F(ê)aites de la danse performances.

Monaco Art Week will bring together 16 participants from the districts of Monte-Carlo and Larvotto: Artcurial, Boghossian, Christie’s, G&M Design, Hauser and Wirth, HOFA, Kamil Art Gallery; Lebreton, Elisabeth Lillo-Renner, M.-F. Toninelli Art Moderne, Opera Gallery, Galerie Adriano Ribolzi, Sotheby’s, Teos Gallery Monte-Carlo, Wannenes Art Contact, and Ward Moretti at Moretti Fine Art.

Though art is the focus, and there will be plenty of beautiful modern and contemporary pieces, the scope is not limited and the event will also include high jewellery creations. It is supported by the Monaco Department of Cultural Affairs and is held under the high patronage of Prince Albert II of Monaco.

 

Do you have an event in Monaco or the French Riviera that you would like us to include in our What’s On section and events calendar? Please email editor@monacolife.net.

Photo of Les Lalannes at Sotheby’s Monaco Gallery in 2022, credit Alice Bensi. 

 

 

May 31st: Prince Rainier III’s 100th birthday celebrations

prince rainier birthday

On 31st May, what would have been the Builder Prince’s 100th birthday, the famous Rock of Monaco will be awash with celebrations as the whole of the Principality turns out to celebrate Prince Rainier III. 

It is but the first date in a year-long celebration of the former Prince of Monaco and the father of current sovereign Prince Albert II.

Prince Rainier III was born on 31st May 1923 and to mark the occasion, the Rock will be transformed into an open-air street party, with everything from music, dance and art to parades and a firework display set to dazzle the public.

The Rainier III Committee has even created a special flag, featuring Rainier’s profile on a tasteful red and white background, for the day and businesses and residents have been encouraged to decorate their homes, offices and streets with the pennants. The decorations have been on sale since 1st May and can be purchased at the souvenir shop on the Place du Palais Princier, Bazar Picco at 22 Avenue Saint-Charles, Brico Center on 4-6 Avenue Albert II and Le Khédive at 9 Boulevard Albert Ier.

There will scarcely be a corner of Monaco Ville where the 31st May celebrations will not be felt. Events will take place at the Palace, the Cathedral, in the streets, on the Place de la Mairie, in the Jardins Saint-Martin, the Oceanographic Museum, the Jardin Animalier and the Club Bouliste.

At the end of the day, at precisely 9.15pm, all locations will celebrate the great man by sharing birthday cake with the assembled crowds. An hour later, at 10.15pm, a fireworks show will be launched from the breakwater of Port Hercule.

The Prince, who reigned for 56 years, was notable for his modern approach to statecraft. Rainier III is credited with revolutionising the Monegasque economy; moving it from one reliant on casinos and gambling to a more sophisticated cultural hub as well as a place with an inventive tax system. He also reformed the constitution, limiting his own powers and creating today’s arrangement, which is a based on a constitutional monarchy.

For a full listing of the day’s events and for information in general on Rainier III’s year of celebrations, please click here.

Read more:

Prince Rainier III: A series of major events set to commemorate the centenary of the Builder Prince’s birth

 

Do you have an event in Monaco or the French Riviera that you would like us to include in our What’s On section and events calendar? Please email editor@monacolife.net.  

 

Photo source: Centenairerainier3.mc

 

Top Marques Monaco 2023: Highlights and new additions revealed

Top Marques Monaco

The countdown is on for the world’s most luxurious supercar show, Top Marques Monaco, which is this year shooting for the stars with some exciting new reveals. 

There is just under a month until the 18th edition of Top Marques Monaco, the world’s most luxurious supercar show, but excitement is already mounting.

While tourists in the Casino Square on Tuesday were treated to a snippet of what’s to be on show in June at the Grimaldi Forum, the press and guests gathered inside the Casino de Monte-Carlo to hear what’s on this year’s agenda.

It was confirmed that the 2023 edition of Top Marques Monaco will be amongst the most thrilling to date, with exceptionally rare hypercars and classic cars on show, as well as the worldwide launch of an electric rover heading for the Moon.

Top Marques returns to Monaco from 7th to 11th June with an extraordinary line-up of the world’s most iconic supercars from yesterday, today and tomorrow – for sale and ready to drive home.

It will feature six world-first reveals, test drives of the finest machines and more than 100 exhibits from the world’s most luxurious brands.

World launches

Top Marques is synonymous with exciting world-first unveilings, and this year the show will see the launch of the nanoFlowcell, the first 100% electric, no battery roadster.

There will also be two Ford Broncos straight from Florida, the first public showing of Venturi’s Flex lunar rover that will be launched into space onboard SpaceX in 2026, and the IR8 Tribute supercar by Dallara Stradale. The sixth and final unveiling remains ‘Top Secret’.

Among the other top brands to be featured are Porsche, Audi, Devinci, Maserati and Aston Martin.

Innovative technology will also be on show by visionaries such as Matador MH2, with their hydrogen concept car, and Nemo 2, the 100% electric submersive.

The nanoFlowcell will be unveiled at this year’s Top Marques Monaco, photo supplied

New this year: Monaco Car Auctions

The first sale organised by the newly launched Monaco Car Auctions will take place on 8th June. The auction will be exclusively dedicated to the Ferrari brand, with both cars and automobilia set to go under the hammer.

Classic cars return

After a successful inaugural edition in 2022, Boutsen Classic Cars led by Thierry Boutsen will take centre stage in the cars of yesteryear section. They will be joined by Classic 4 You, DPM Motors and a Bugatti Royale, on loan from the National Automobile Museum of Mulhouse and the Collection of Cars of H.S.H. Prince Albert II of Monaco. Meanwhile, two Benetton F1 cars driven by Schumacher during his first F1 wins will be on show and for sale.

Entertainment

Ambassador GMK (Georges Maroun Kikano), France’s number one automotive influencer, revealed that a competition will be held this year, titled Car Spotters’ Awards, inviting people to submit their favourite photos and videos of cars, and a lotto in which the winners will receive a pair of limited edition Nike shoes. There will also be Lego workshops for the kids to create their favourite cars, and a design competition for young car designers.

Security and safety a top priority

It was also mentioned during Tuesday’s press conference that Monaco’s Public Security will be out in force to ensure speed limits and respectable behaviour are adhered to. On the spot fines of €300 will be issued for those who fail to comply, and cars will be impounded for five days.

Tickets for Top Marques Monaco

Day passes for Thursday 8th and Friday 9th June are priced at 80€. Saturday 10th and Sunday 11th June are 40€. VIP passes are 150€. Tickets are on sale at ww.topmarquesmonaco.com.

 

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Photo above: The hydrogen concept carMatador MH2, courtesy Top Marques