Monopol is a monthly art magazine that has been published in Germany since 2004. In addition to the core theme of contemporary art, the magazine also includes articles on the topics of design, architecture, fashion, literature and film.

Monopol was founded in April 2004 in Berlin by former FAZ editors Amélie von Heydebreck and Florian Illies who ran it until 2007.^[1] Since then, former Welt am Sonntag culture editor Cornelius Tittel has been editor-in-chief; the founding members remained publishers. From 2010 to 2016, Holger Liebs, previously an art critic at the Süddeutsche Zeitung, ran the magazine as editor-in-chief. He was succeeded by Elke Buhr previously an art critic at the Frankfurter Rundschau and deputy editor-in-chief at the magazine since 2008.^[2]

Monopol was initially published by Juno Verlag, founded in 2003, which belonged to the Swiss Ringier Group from January 2006 to May 2016. In May 2016, the magazine was sold to Christoph Schwennicke, editor-in-chief of Cicero, and his deputy Alexander Marguier. Since then, they have published both magazines under the umbrella of Res Publica Verlags GmbH.^[3]

Until the end of 2006, Monopol was published every two months; since January 2007, the magazine has been published monthly. The sold circulation is around 35,000 copies.

Monopol has been publishing an annual list of the 100 most important people in the art world since 2017. Before that, Monopol published the list several times, first in 2004. 2021 steht die US-amerikanische Philosophin Donna Haraway an der Spitze, gefolgt von der Medienkünstlerin und Hochschulprofessorin Hito Steyerl. Unter den Top Ten finden sich außerdem die Direktorin des Frankfurter Museums für Moderne Kunst, Susanne Pfeffer, das für die fünfzehnte Ausgabe der documenta in Kassel verantwortlich zeichnende Künstlerkollektiv Ruangrupa sowie als Team Bénédicte Savoy und Felwine Sarr.

The authors included Christian Kracht, Jonathan Safran Foer, Moritz von Uslar, Nick Hornby, Jerry Saltz, Beat Wyss, Ulf Erdmann Ziegler, Barbara Vinken, Wolfgang Ullrich, Ben Lewis, Niklas Maak, Matthew Collings, Peter Richter, Klaus Biesenbach und Chris Dercon.

Photographers for the magazine included Jack Pierson, Hedi Slimane, Juergen Teller, Mario Testino, Cass Bird, François Halard, Jason Schmidt, Todd Eberle, Albrecht Fuchs, Andreas Mühe, Noshe, Alex Trebus, Wolfgang Stahr, Armin Linke, Amy Stein, Debora Mittelstaedt und Heji Shin.

Despite accusations of anti-Semitism against Ruangrupa (the artistic director of Documenta 2022), this collective was ranked second by Monopol in the same year 2022 in the ranking of the 100 most influential artists in the world.^[4][5] Monopol was thus criticized for not distancing itself enough from supposedly anti-Semitic positions.

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