A major exhibition celebrating more than 130 years of Monaco’s relationship with the automobile opened at the Grimaldi Forum on Wednesday, bringing together 53 iconic vehicles drawn from lenders across the world in a show that has taken years to assemble. Originally planned for 2020, ‘Monaco and the Automobile, from 1893 to the Present Day’ was delayed by the pandemic and finally opens this summer across 3,500 square metres of immersive displays, archival footage, previously unseen documents and scenographic installations.
“It is always great to present three to four years of hard work that goes into an exhibition,” said Sylvie Biancheri, General Manager of the Grimaldi Forum Monaco. “For ‘Monaco and the Automobile’ I have to say that it has been quite difficult to find the original cars — not just winning cars, but the cars that actually raced in Monaco. We have 53 iconic vehicles in this exhibition and almost 50 lenders, so that gives you an idea of how hard it is to find these vehicles.”
The scale of that undertaking is visible throughout. Almost every car on display is the actual vehicle that competed, not a replica or a similar model — sourced from private collectors, racing archives and institutional lenders spanning multiple countries.
A wedding and a beginning
The exhibition opens with one of its most emotionally charged pieces: the Rolls-Royce Silver Wraith that carried Prince Rainier III and Princess Grace through Monaco on 19 April 1956, the day of their religious wedding. Accompanied by archival video footage of the ceremony, the car anchors the show’s opening in a year when Monaco is already marking the 70th anniversary of that union — the so-called ‘Wedding of the Century,’ watched by 30 million viewers on Eurovision and still considered the second most widely covered event in the world after the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.
An immersive journey through time
What distinguishes this exhibition from a conventional motor show is the depth of context surrounding the cars. Screens throughout the Grimaldi Forum chronicle Monaco’s history with the automobile, from the arrival of the first car in the Principality during the Paris-Nice race of 1893, through the creation of the Monte-Carlo Rally in 1911 and the first Monaco Grand Prix in 1929, to the present day. Previously unseen documents from racing archives sit alongside video reconstructions of landmark races and moments, allowing visitors to experience the history rather than simply read about it.
The exhibition closes with a striking juxtaposition: the 1893 Panhard & Levassor Type P2D, the oldest running petrol-powered automobile in the world, placed face to face with the Venturi Space MONA LUNA, a lunar rover designed to operate at the Moon’s South Pole by 2030 — a deliberate bridge between Monaco’s pioneering past and its ambitions for the future.
Chiron, Leclerc and the cars that raced
A section dedicated to great Monegasque drivers traces the line from Louis Chiron, who remains the only driver ever to have won both the Monaco Grand Prix and the Monte-Carlo Rally, to Charles Leclerc, represented by his Ferrari SF-24 — the car with which he became only the second Monegasque winner of his home Grand Prix in 2024, ending a 93-year wait since Chiron’s victory. Video footage of the race accompanies the car.
For everyone, not just enthusiasts
Biancheri is emphatic that the exhibition is not aimed exclusively at motorsport fans. “I think it is not only for experts or fans of the automobile — it is for everybody. Families, children, everybody can find a topic which could be attractive to them,” she said.
Curated by Rodolphe Rapetti, Chief Heritage Curator and art historian, the exhibition approaches the automobile as an aesthetic and cultural object as much as a technical one, positioning Monaco as a place where innovation, elegance and performance have always converged.
‘Monaco and the Automobile, from 1893 to the Present Day’ runs at the Grimaldi Forum Monaco from 1st July to 6th September 2026.
Stay updated with Monaco Life: sign up for our free newsletter, listen to our podcasts on Spotify, and follow us across Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn, and Tik Tok.
Main photo credit: Cassandra Tanti
