The record
A framed fragment standing off to one side at the station — in the principality that auctioned the Wall to the world and cannot say where its own piece came from.
The fragment of the Berlin Wall at the railway station of the Principality of Monaco is set in a black metal frame. It is painted in pastel blues, greens and reds, and barely reads as a border fortification any more: only the motif — a wide landscape seen through a window, with a small dove — suggests what it is. At the foot of it the words Mur de Berlin have been fixed.
Neither the principality's administration nor the tourist office could say when or how it arrived.
That blank is the point of the record. Monaco is where the international trade in the Wall began: the first great auction was held here in June 1990, with collectors, artists, celebrities and businessmen bidding for painted pieces of the border, and segments from that sale are recorded in this catalogue in Switzerland, Italy, France and Poland. The place that dispersed the Wall to the world kept a piece and lost track of its provenance.
How did it get here?
Not established. Neither the administration of the principality nor the tourist office could establish when or how the fragment arrived.
Sources
Listed by the Federal Foundation as #141 and by the Berlin Wall Archive as #264.
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide, site entry ↗
The framed and painted fragment at the Monaco railway station with its Mur de Berlin inscription, the failure of the administration and tourist information to establish its origin, and Monaco as the setting of the first international auction of wall segments in 1990.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17
Federal Foundation — Berlin Wall worldwide ↗
The source lists this place as a Berlin Wall location. Coordinates, where supplied, are source-reported and may represent a general area. This is not independent verification of authenticity, current presence, or public access.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17 · Source record 141
Berlin Wall Archive ↗
The source lists this place as a Berlin Wall location. Coordinates, where supplied, are source-reported and may represent a general area. This is not independent verification of authenticity, current presence, or public access.
Inventory listingSource accessed 2026-09-17 · Source record 264
Source-reported segments: 1. This is not a separately verified count.
No photograph of this one has been published. If you have taken one, or know when it arrived or who gave it, we would like to hear. Contribute to this record