"Museum opening of the year" Apollo award to The Mougins Museum of Classical Art

The Mougins Museum of Classical Art is a triumphant demonstration of a proper understanding of the relevance and history of Western arts, as well as a splendid display of them in context.

(Sir John Boardman, Britain's most distinguished historian of ancient Greek - Emeritus Lincoln Professor of Classical Archaeology & Art at the University of Oxford)

The Mougins Museum of Classical Art has been awarded the Apollo Prize "Inauguration for the year 2011". Goppion has created its exhibition system with new System Q display cases. The layout design also includes two special exhibition cases, 7 metres high with powered pull&slide opening. Spectacular in terms of their dimensions and engineering, they have been specially developed by the Laboratorio Museotecnico in Trezzano sul Naviglio for the Mougins Museum of Classical Art.

Founded in 1925, Apollo is one of the oldest, most authoritative magazines on the visual arts in the world. In the editorial of the November issue, editor-in-chief Oscar Humphries writes:

"(...) We commend the Mougins Museum of Classical Art (which houses a private collection that displays antiquities cheek by jowl with modern and contemporary art) as Museum Opening of the Year. Despite funding cuts, the world’s museums have continued to acquire great art, foremost among which were, we felt, the Nimrud Ivories purchased by the British Museum (Fig. 1), our Museum Acquisition of the Year.

The awards were chosen in consultation with Apollo’s editorial board members: Philippa Glanville, former Keeper of Metalwork at the V&A; Ian Gow, Chief Curator of the National Trust for Scotland; Michael Hall, my preceding editor at Apollo; Paul Moorhouse, 20th-Century Curator at the National Portrait Gallery; Joachim Pissarro, Berhad Professor of Art History and Director of the Hunter College Galleries, Hunter College; Dame Jessica Rawson CBE, Professor of Chinese Art and Archaeology at the University of Oxford; Charles Saumarez Smith CBE, Secretary and Chief Executive of the Royal Academy; and Diana Scarisbrick, a distinguished jewellery historian. Next year promises another round of major museum openings, revelatory shows and achievements; these we look forward to covering and ultimately considering for our annual awards in 2012".

Annual Apollo Awards celebrate outstanding achievements in the arts in the 12 months between November 2010 and November 2011.