In pictures: Prince Albert II awards first Monaco–Villa Medici art grant
This grant enables an artist in residence at the Villa Medici to create an original work © Frédéric Nebinger / Prince’s Palace
On 18 March, Prince Albert II personally presented the very first “Prince of Monaco – Villa Medici” creative grant to the French artist Nicolas Daubanes.
This marks a first in cultural relations between Monaco and Rome. In 2024, the Prince’s Palace and the French Academy in Rome formalised an agreement establishing an annual grant of €30,000, intended to support an artist in residence at the Villa Medici. Each winner is invited to create an original work by drawing inspiration from the history, architecture and collections of this venue steeped in centuries of creativity. The inaugural ceremony took place this Wednesday at the Prince’s Palace, in the presence of Prince Albert II.
Nicolas Daubanes, first recipient of the fellowship
Born in 1983, Nicolas Daubanes is a resident at the Villa Medici for the 2024–2025 academic year. His work, which encompasses drawing, video and installation, explores the areas of tension between representation and memory. His winning project, Le feu intérieur, engages in a dialogue with seminal figures of European painting (Granet, Corot, Velázquez) to examine the way in which images transform, fade and endure.
The award also honours a little-known chapter in Monaco’s artistic history. In 1782, the painter Jean-Baptiste Vignali (1762–1799), born in Monaco, was admitted to the French Academy in Rome after receiving an award from the Royal Academy of Painting and Sculpture.
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By establishing this grant, Monaco is reviving this long tradition of supporting artists’ mobility, reflecting a vision of princely patronage that has never separated heritage conservation from the encouragement of living creativity.