“It’s a bit of a hodge-podge!” exclaimed one institutional visitor to the 10th Art Monte Carlo, held in the tiny, uber-rich Monegasque principality from 29th April to 1st May, with a well-attended vernissage the night before.
Indeed, the fair offers quite a mix, from Old Master paintings and Murano glass to works by Picasso, Warhol and Richter. The variety continues with the galleries present: heavyweights such as Christophe Van der Weghe and Almine Rech are present, alongside smaller exhibitors like newcomer Barovier & Toso of Venice.
With just 26 exhibitors, this is a small fair but with big ambitions: it was bought last year from Palexpo, owner of Art Geneva, by Informa Prestige. This is a newly-formed luxury offshoot of Informa, which organises numerous trade fairs in such fields as yachting and supercars. John Paton, executive chair, explains that its strategy is to increase its presence in the market: the company already owns Miami’s Untitled and New York’s Independent art fair. “There are complementary audiences in these fields, with a clientele of collectors with wealth,” he says. Having bought the fair, Informa moved its slot to April from the previous July, a change applauded by the dealers. It is held in the newly extended Grimaldi Forum, close to the Monte Carlo waterfront.
To start with the Old Masters, Hartford/Lampronti gallery has just opened in Monaco and so signed up for the first time. It was showing a broad selection of works mainly from the 18th centuries, with a particular emphasis on vedute. Star of its stand was Poussin’s Landscape with a man washing his feet at a fountain, about 1640, priced at €1.3m. There was also a Poussin on the stand of Voena, alongside an installation of Paolini plaster heads on columns, some broken, some intact.
The reason for this slew of Poussins is an exhibition, Contemporary Art in the Mirror of Poussin (until 25 May), at the New National Museum of Monaco (NMNM) which features seven works by the painter. Two are loaned by local collectors—including Prince Rainier of Monaco—with the others coming from institutions in France and Spain.
193 Gallery's stand
Photo: Nicolas Brasseur
“There is a sort of golden triangle between St Tropez, St Jean Cap Ferrat and Monte Carlo,” says César Levy of 193 Gallery; “And most of our collectors come from that area.” He sold four works on the first day, including Rob Butler’s After the rain (2025)—the works are priced between €6,000 and €9,000.
Elsewhere sales were quite slow, judging by the second day. Van de Weghe had brought a $1.6m abstract by Gerhard Richter and a $600,000 work by Andy Warhol, but reported only the sale of Frederic Anderson’s Psychotic Break (2024) for $38,500, with a 10% discount. Other sales tended to be in the same, lower price bracket. For instance Suzanne Tarasieve, from Paris, placed two large photographs by Jurgen Teller, Iggy Pop No.23, Miami (2022), and a picture of Teller’s daughter at 4 months, Iggy, (2023). They were priced between €30,000 and €40,000.
The fair is unlikely to yet be profitable—something Paton neither confirmed nor denied. However, he did say that: “I believe the art market’s long-term future is robust. We intend to grow the fair, bolster its educational and collector programmes and in the next two years almost double its size. There is even talk of extending it to another location.” But asked about this, he wouldn’t say any more except that it has "global ambitions".
