The Provençal town of Mougins—a petite, picturesque spiral perched on a hilltop between Cannes and Grasse—has proved irresistible to many artists, among them Francis Picabia, Fernand Léger, Jean Cocteau, Isadora Duncan, and Man Ray. The protean Pablo Picasso spent the last 12 years of his life in a palatial villa just outside the town. In a move calculated to roll the big man over in his grave (which is not in Mougins, as the mayor is said to have refused the burial of the “billionaire communist”), the town is now home to the first private museum in Europe exclusively dedicated to art created by women. Visitors to Femmes Artistes du Musée de Mougins (FAMM), which opened its doors at the end of June, pass by a giant sculpture of Picasso’s head on their way into the museum, where striking portraits by his lovers Dora Maar and Françoise Gilot side-eye each other across a gallery on the third floor.
It’s an eye-catching endeavor on the part of the art collector Christian Levett, who showcased his collection of classical antiquities in this space—which was known as the Mougins Museum of Classical Art—from 2011 until last year.
