Velvet curtains sweep open. Soft birdsong greets the ears. A faint rose fragrance carries through the air. At the heart of the Grand Apartments of the Palais Princier, something rare is unfolding, not a display, but a homecoming.
From July 5th to September 14th, the Prince’s Palace opens its doors not simply to showcase Princess Grace, but to share her, as Prince Albert II would remember her: a mother, a woman of warmth and quiet strength, far beyond her public legend.
This exhibition, titled “Grace #1”, does not echo the story we think we know. Rather, it invites us to pause, to listen, and to rediscover Grace Patricia Kelly, not through tabloid headlines or film posters, but through the intimate lens of her own life.
A Mother’s World, a Woman’s Voice
Curated with affection and extraordinary sensitivity by Natalia Mlodzikowska, head of the Palais collections department, and guest artistic curator Marie-Eve Mestre, the exhibition was designed not just to inform, but to feel.
Three rooms, covering 90 square meters, become a personal and poetic space — filled with light, quiet, and her presence.
Here are her gloves, worn on family strolls through the Palace gardens. Her Hermès Kelly bag, iconic but used like any other mother’s purse. Her glasses, worn while reading bedtime stories to her children. Her hats, always stylish, but chosen with a modesty she preferred.
The scenography is immersive: velvet carpeting mutes your steps; soft lighting wraps each item in memory. And through it all, the soundscape — gentle birdsong — seems to echo the Princess’s love of nature and calm.
But perhaps most moving are the photographs, taken by Howell Conant in Jamaica, where Grace appears not regal but free: smiling, playful, unguarded. A woman, not a symbol.
An Exhibition as Personal as the Palace Itself
This is no ordinary retrospective. It’s as if the palace itself, long a silent witness to her days, has found a way to speak. The exhibition reveals Grace as daughter, wife, artist, and mother, not in sequence but in soul.
Her voice is felt in the objects she touched, the Super-8 films she shot, the handwritten notes beside family snapshots. There is a sense, gently but unmistakably, that we are walking through her private world, respectfully, lovingly, and with quiet awe.
For Prince Albert II, the exhibition is more than tribute. It is remembrance.
“She was our mother before she was Monaco’s Princess,” he has often said in many different shades. This exhibition finally allows that truth to take its place beside the public memory.
More Than Grace — Monaco’s Heart
To Monegasques, Grace is not a myth. She is history. She is the woman who brought warmth and dignity to a modernizing Principality. The one who walked among us, whose family has always been close to the people.
Her commitment to charity, to the arts, to children and families, continues through the foundations and values she helped shape, legacies that endure through the work of Princess Caroline, Princess Stéphanie, and the Prince himself.
Practical Details
“Grace #1” runs daily from July 5 to August 31 (10am–6pm) and September 1 to 14 (10am–5pm). Entry is included with access to the Grand Apartments.
Locals and visitors alike are urged not to rush, but to linger. To listen. To remember.
Because in these rooms, Grace has not left. She is simply waiting for you to come see her as she truly was: a woman of light, love, and lasting presence … forever our Princess, forever our Grace.
