Car Collection of Rainier III, Prince of Monaco
The Exhibition of HSH The Prince of Monaco's Car Collection is an automobile museum in the La Condamine district of Monaco.[1] The museum exhibits the personal car collection of Prince Rainier III of Monaco, which he assembled of a period of thirty years.
The collection
[edit]The cars were the personal collection of Prince Rainier III of Monaco (1923–2005), and assembled over a thirty-year period.[1][2] The collection contains almost one hundred classic cars made in Europe and the United States.[1] Notable cars in the collection include the Bugatti Type 35 driven by William Grover-Williams that won the inaugural Monaco Grand Prix in 1929,[3] and Sébastien Loeb's Citroën DS3 WRC, which he drove to victory in the 2013 Monte Carlo Rally.[4] 38 cars from the collection were put up for auction in 2012 due to Prince Albert II's desire to re-organise and expand the collection.[5]
The cars are displayed over five levels in a specially constructed space in the Terrasses de Fontvieille,[2] and the museum is open daily from 10am to 6pm, excluding Christmas Day and New Year's Day.[1]
The museum also displays cars that have been donated or lent. One such car is a Ferrari SF90 that was driven by Charles Leclerc in the 2019 Formula One World Championship.[6]
History
[edit]Prince Rainier III opened his collection up to the public in 1993, after his collection became too large to keep at the palace garage.[7] The collection was originally kept at the Terrasses de Fontvielle, but was moved to a new building at Port Hercules, in the middle of the Grand Prix Circut, in 2022.[6][7]
Gallery
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See also
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References
[edit]- ^ a b c d "Museums". Visit Monaco - Museums. Visit Monaco. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
- ^ a b "Monaco Top Cars Collection". FIA Heritage Museums. FIA. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
- ^ David C. King (2008). Monaco. Marshall Cavendish. pp. 111–. ISBN 978-0-7614-2567-0.
- ^ "Prince Given Loeb's DS3 for Monaco Collection". Rally Australia - News. Rally Australia. 22 April 2014. Archived from the original on 27 March 2019. Retrieved 4 August 2014.
- ^ "Prince Albert of Monaco to Auction 38 Cars from Private Collection". July 2012.
- ^ a b Parkes, Ian (21 May 2021). "In Monaco, a Royal Collection of Cars". The New York Times. Retrieved 13 April 2025.
- ^ a b Ellwood, Mark (4 August 2022). "Monaco's Late Prince Rainer Loved Cars. Now His World-Class Collection Has Moved to Its Own Museum". Robb Report. Retrieved 13 April 2025.