Unanimously praised, the major 2023 summer event of the Grimaldi Forum which retraced the work of Monet was an exceptional success, establishing a new attendance record.
The exhibition closed its doors on Sunday evening having admitted 120,000 visitors.
Sylvie Biancheri, General Director of the Grimaldi Forum, expressed her immense satisfaction: “It’s a record! Relative to the number of days open, it is the most visited exhibition at the Grimaldi Forum! We can be proud of such a result and I would like to salute the tremendous work carried out by all our teams. From self-guided tours to guided tours, including the boutique, we were stocked up during the 58 days of the exhibition to the great satisfaction of the public.”
The enthusiasm of the national and international press but also that of social networks has largely contributed to the success of this exhibition, as did its strong local connection and its completely new Riviera section.
An average of 2,000 visitors came daily, with peaks of up to 4,000 people at the end of the exhibition when word of mouth had spread. Eighty percent of visitors came from Monaco and France, but also from abroad, with a majority of Europeans, at the forefront of which were around 10 percent Italians, attracted by the paintings of Claude Monet in Bordighera and Dolceacqua.
For Francesco Grosoli, CEO of CMB Monaco, official and historic partner of the Grimaldi Forum: “This exhibition will remain engraved in memories. Its quality reflected our ambition in terms of patronage, that of contributing ever more and better to the cultural influence of the Principality. It was also an opportunity to take advantage of the partnership between the Grimaldi Forum and CMB Monaco.”
Inaugurated on July 6 by HSH Prince Albert, the Monet in Full Light exhibition ran from July 8 to September 3, and celebrated the 140th anniversary of Claude Monet’s first stopover in Monte-Carlo and on the Riviera. It offered a new look at the work of the Master through a tour of nearly 100 paintings from all over the world.
Curated by Marianne Mathieu, a Claude Monet specialist, the exhibition provided the keys to better understanding the painter’s quest through an exceptional scenography over 2,500 square metres. It was one of the most important exhibitions dedicated to Claude Monet of this decade, and undoubtedly also the most daring, with masterpieces rarely revealed together – and one previously unshown.
PHOTO: HSH Prince Albert with the exhibition’s curator, Marianne Mathieu