Picasso museum

On 27 December 1966, Grimaldi Castle was turned into the « Picasso Museum ». The building was exten- sively renovated between 2006 and 2008.
Built on what had been the ancient Greek Acropolis of Antipolis, and then a Roman castrum and a Medieval bishopric, it was owned until 1608 by the Grimaldi family, giving the Castle its name.

In 1925 it was acquired by the City of Antibes. In 1946, Picasso, who was living nearby in Golfe-Juan with Françoise Gilot, accepted curator Dor de la Souchère’s offer to set up his studio in the Castle. Picasso worked from mid September through mid November of 1946, creating many works, sketches and paintings, including Les Clés d’Antibes (The Keys of Antibes), covering an entire wall surface. When the artist decided to move back to Paris, he left 23 paintings and 44 sketches in the Castle’s custody.
Subsequently, apart from the 78 ceramic works created between 1947 and 1948 at Madoura de Vallauris’ workshop, various donations and purchases spanning from 1952 until the present day, as well as the custody pieces conferred by Jacqueline Picasso en 1991, have significantly enriched the Picasso collection of the Museum.

Nicolas de Staël’s works presented at the Museum bear testimony to the artist’s stay at Antibes from September 1954 to March 1955.
In 2001, a donation by the Hans Hartung and Anna- Eva Bergman Foundation provided for the opening of two new galleries on the ground floor of the museum. A permanent exhibition permits retraces the creative periods of each of these artists over several decades.

The Modern Art collection, begun in 1951 by Dor de la Souchère, has grown thanks to exceptional gifts from artists whose works had been exhibited at the Museum and to equally exceptional acquisitions made over the years by the City of Antibes.
The terrace of the Picasso Museum is home to a per- manent collection of remarkable sculptures by Germaine Richier. Other artists represented are: Joan Miró, Bernard Pagès, Anne and Patrick Poirier.

The museum is closed : the 1st January, 1st May, 1st November and 25th December

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