Since it opened in 2009, the Nouveau Musée National de Monaco has been showcasing Monaco’s heritage and contemporary art scene by presenting several exhibitions a year at its two sites: Villa Paloma and Villa Sauber.
Devoted to the theme of “Art and Land”, the first of these sites, built in the 1910s, is one of the most beautiful of Monaco’s patrician residences, located in the hills above Monaco on Boulevard du Jardin Exotique.
With a focus on “Art and Performance”, Villa Sauber is one of the Principality’s last Belle Epoque villas.
The Nouveau Musée National de Monaco’s collection includes Madeleine de Galéa’s collection of dolls and automata, the sculptures of François Joseph Bosio (1768–1845), costumes and stage props, scale models of sets and building plans.
It is a living collection, enhanced every year with acquisitions of works by contemporary artists: Richard Artschwager, Michel Blazy, Jean Dubuffet, Anish Kapoor, Yinka Shonibare MBE…
Through its exhibitions, the NMNM has also been able to highlight works by Thomas Demand; a cabinet of curiosities by Mark Dion; the at once tender and provocative world of Gilbert & George; and the work of Monegasque national Hercule Florence, the inventor of zoophonia, a musical notation system for birdsong, and polygraphia, a printing method based on the principles of photography.
The museum team is also working on a collective project, “Training for a Museum”, with historians, restauranteurs, designers, set designers, writers and artists, on the topic of heritage.
Björn Dahlström leads the New National Museum of Monaco since 2021. Curator of the exhibition by Luxembourg artist Su-Mei Tse at the 50th Venice Biennale in 2003 (where she was awarded the Leono d’Oro), the former director of the Yves Saint-Laurent Museum in Paris worked to establish Zeitz Mocaa, the contemporary art museum in Cape Town, South Africa. He was also commissioned by the Jardin Majorelle Foundation, which was created by Yves Saint Laurent and Pierre Bergé, to design the Berber Museum in Marrakech.
