250th Birthday of François-Joseph Bosio

The design shows a portrait of François-Joseph Bosio (1768-1845), the Monegasque sculptor, painter, draughtsman and engraver. To its right, the statue of the nymph Salmacis. Below: the inscription “FRANÇOIS JOSEPH BOSIO”, “1768 · SCULPTEUR · 2018” and the mint marks of the French mint and of Yves Sampo. Above the design, the issuing state “MONACO”.

François-Joseph Bosio is among the most important sculptors of the early 19th century in Europe. Born in Monaco in 1768, then part of the County of Nice under Sardinian rule, he rose via Paris to the top of French sculpture of his time. Under Napoleon I and later under the Bourbons, Bosio became a favoured court sculptor: his works adorn the Arc de Triomphe du Carrousel in Paris, and his equestrian statue of Louis XIV still stands today on the Place des Victoires. European neoclassicism owes him a series of masterpieces still displayed in museums in Paris, Vienna and London. Despite his close ties to France, where he was admitted to the Académie des Beaux-Arts in 1827, his Monegasque origins remained part of his biography - a fact that Monaco, a small principality with a great cultural legacy, continues to cultivate to this day.

Monaco honoured Bosio in 2018 on the occasion of his 250th birthday with a commemorative coin. The principality, which occupies barely two square kilometres and is among the world's most densely populated and wealthiest territories, looks back on more than eight hundred years of history closely tied to the House of Grimaldi. This historical continuity is reflected in a cultural identity that resonates far beyond the borders of this Mediterranean state - and within it, Bosio occupies a special place as one of the few Monegasque artists of European stature. His work combines the classical formal language of neoclassicism with the representational ambitions of Napoleonic and Restoration rule, making him a figure who belongs equally to the art history of France and of Monaco.