Rare Royalty Prince Albert II Monaco Signed Royal Presentation Photograph Photo
Item History & Price
Albert II (Albert Alexandre Louis Pierre Grimaldi; born 14 March 1958) is the Sovereign Prince of Monaco and head of the Princely House of Grimaldi. He is the son of Prince Rain...ier III and Grace Kelly.
He was born at the Prince's Palace of Monaco, and attended the Lycée Albert Premier before studying political science at Amherst College. In his youth, he competed in bobsleigh during Winter Olympic finals before retiring in 2002. Albert was appointed regent in March 2005 after his father fell ill, and became sovereign prince upon his passing a week later. Since his ascension, he has been outspoken in the field of environmentalism and an advocate of ocean conservation, and adoption of renewable energy sources to tackle global climate change, and founded The Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation in 2006, to directly raise funds and initiate action for such causes and greater ecological preservation.
Albert is one of the wealthiest royals in the world, with assets valued at more than $1 billion, which include land in Monaco and France. He owns shares in the Société des Bains de Mer, which operates Monaco's casino and other entertainment properties in the principality.
In July 2011, Prince Albert married South African Olympic swimmer Charlene Wittstock. They have two children, the twins Princess Gabriella and Hereditary Prince Jacques. Prince Albert is also father to two children born prior to his marriage, American-born Jazmin Grace Grimaldi and French-born Alexandre Grimaldi-Coste.
In the early years of his reign, Prince Albert oversaw multiple judicial and legal reforms, including the regulation of custody, protections of the privacy of the individual in the face of technological growth, freedom of the press, legislative gender equality, and the protection of children's rights and handicapped students. In July 2005, in echo of Albert I, his great-great-grandfather, he travelled to Spitsbergen, Norway. During this trip, he visited the glaciers Lilliehöökbreen and Monacobreen. Prince Albert also engaged in a Russian Arctic expedition, reaching the North Pole on Easter, 16 April 2006. He is the first incumbent head of state to have reached the North Pole.
Since his ascension, the Prince has overseen the construction of various community facilities, including social housing, railway infrastructure, educational institutes for the hospitality industry, and secondary education. He currently heads an initiative to promote ethical economic activity, criminal liability, the adopting of systems to combat money laundering and organized crime, and the introduction of tax fraud into Monegasque criminal law. In 2006, Prince Albert created the Prince Albert II of Monaco Foundation, which continues Monaco's commitment to supporting sustainable and ethical projects around the world. The foundation's focus has on three main objectives: climate change and renewable energy development, combating the loss of biodiversity, and improving universal access to clean water.
On 27 August 2015, Prince Albert apologized for Monaco's role in facilitating the deportation of a total of 90 Jews and resistance fighters to the Nazis in 1942, of whom only nine survived. "We committed the irreparable in handing over to the neighboring authorities women, men, and a child who had taken refuge with us to escape the persecutions they had suffered in France, " Albert said at a ceremony in which a monument to the victims was unveiled at the Monaco cemetery. "In distress, they came specifically to take shelter with us, thinking they would find neutrality."