Consulate Hosts Historic Las Vegas Visit of Ambassador and Consuls of Monaco June 21, 2012

Exclusive Monaco Private Label dinner welcomes Las Vegas society.

Ambassador of Monaco receives Key to the City of Las Vegas.

H.E. Gilles Noghès, Ambassador of the Principality of Monaco to the United States and Canada, was welcomed in Las Vegas on June 14, 2012 by Consul Jonathan Warren.

Mayor Pro Tem of Las Vegas Stavros Anthony and Consul of Monaco in Las Vegas Jonathan Warren presenting the Key to the City of Las Vegas to Ambassador Gilles Noghes.

The arrival represents the first official visit to Nevada of the first Ambassador of Monaco ever accredited to the United States.  It was also the first official visit of any Ambassador of Monaco to the Consulate of Monaco in Las Vegas, which was first opened in 1956.

The Consulate of Monaco in Las Vegas and the Embassy of Monaco in Washington, DC worked closely with Mr. Michel Bouquier, Special Economic Advisor to the Government of Monaco, to host the first Monaco Private Label dinner in Las Vegas.  Monaco Private Label was introduced by the Principality in 2010 to offer special access, of a level and nature which money alone can not buy, to very special visitors to Monaco.  Members must be invited by a consul or ambassador of the Principality.  Twenty Las Vegans were presented with the honor.

Mayor Pro Tem of the City of Las Vegas, Stavros Anthony, awarded the Ambassador the Key to the City of Las Vegas.  Mayor Pro Tem Anthony cited the Ambassador’s work, with the approval of HSH Prince Albert II, to re-open the Consulate of Monaco in Las Vegas by appointing Las Vegan Jonathan Warren as Honorary Consul in 2010.  The Consulate had been moved to Los Angeles 47 years earlier when Consul Henry Leigh Hunt retired in 1963.

Consul Jonathan Warren with Steve Wynn at MPL Dinner

The event took place within Thriller Villa at Hacienda Palomino, the former Las Vegas residence of Michael Jackson.  security was high as fifty-five guests, including such Las Vegas notables as Steve Wynn, Sig Rogich, Richard Goeglein, Steve Schorr, Aner Iglesias, Marykaye Cashman, Vera Goulet and Monaco Grand Prix champion Enrico Bertaggia joined the Embassy delegation as well as Mr. Patrice Solamito, Director of the Casino Monte Carlo and Guillaume Rose, Monaco Director of Conventions and Tourism.  Seven consuls of Monaco were present, including the Honorable Maguey Maccario, Consul General of Monaco in New York, the senior consular officer of Monaco in the United States.

The evening opened and closed with opera by tenor Marco Varela and soprano Betsy Fiore, with harpist Kim DeLibero during dinner.

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Photos by IM Photography