In another modern-day tragedy, an elegant mansion overlooking a
Paris park and containing a priceless 18th century art collection,
is all that is left of a Jewish family who travelled Europe from
west to east and back again over several centuries.
Left for posterity to France are 18th century clocks and
fountains, vases and tables once owned by Marie-Antoinette, oils
commissioned by King Louis XV, silverware ordered by Russia’s
Catherine II, and rare porcelains, tapestries and marquetry
fashioned by the finest craftsmen of the times.
Auschwitz brought down the curtain on the Camondos, but fleeting
images of the family remain in what was once their home, a
residence left by will to France’s Decorative Arts museum and known
as the Nissim de Camondo Museum.
Last week, the French authorities ended renovation work on
several rooms previously closed to the public as well as revamping
the garage of the rambling three-floor mansion bordering leafy Parc
Monceau.
In the 1930s, the Camondo residence housed a dozen servants as
well as mechanics to service the Bugattis and Talbots parked in the
spacious garage. A portrait from less than a century earlier shows
their Turkey-based ancestor, Abraham-Salomon de Camondo, wearing an
Oriental turban and robe, and a long white beard.
But in 1943 the Camondo dynasty died out in a Nazi camp after
the deportation of the last family members from France to
Auschwitz.
Driven out of Spain during the Inquisition, the original
Camondos sought exile first in Trieste, then under the Ottoman
Empire, setting up a bank in Constantinople in 1802 which turned
them into one of Europe’s wealthiest banking families and earned
them the nickname of ”the Rothschilds of the East.”
They worked closely with the Ottoman court and helped build up
the European sector of Istanbul while striving for the integration
of Jews. They also backed Victor Emmanuel II, the first king of
united Italy, and were rewarded with the title of count.
In the late 19th century, two Camondo brothers set up a branch
of the bank in Paris and moved into adjoining mansions, including
the one turned into a museum today. Their respective sons became
avid art collectors, one dying childless in 1911 and donating his
collection to the Louvre, including works by Cezanne, Degas, Manet
and Monet.
His cousin Moise de Camondo, who was born in 1860, was
fascinated for his part by the decorative arts of the 18th century,
and upon inheriting the family home in 1910 had the facade of the
building pulled down and redone in the classical style of the Petit
Trianon that is part of the Versailles palace complex.
Inside, the building was fitted out with mod-cons of the time —
an elegant lift complete with plush velvet chair concealed behind a
door, an ozone steriliser for purifying water in a kitchen, a
clothes-drier and a car repair workroom below the garage.
While other mansions that once belonged to the rich and famous
have been turned into offices, their walls left standing but their
insides gutted of space-wasters such as grand stairs and servants’
dining-rooms, the Camondo residence has been preserved exactly as
it was with the help of state funding and private donors, such as
the Florence Gould Foundation and Kraemer family.
”The home gives a rare insight into the lifestyle of a patrician
family between the two world wars,” said curator Marie-Noel de
Gary.
In 1917, Nissim de Camondo, eldest child and only son of Moise,
was killed in combat. His sister Beatrice married shortly after,
and the father, already divorced, devoted his time to enhancing his
art collection with the assistance of some of France’s top fine
arts specialists.
It was then that Moise de Camondo penned his will.
”I bequeath to the museum of Decorative Arts my home as it is at
the time of my death. It will be given the name Nissim de Camondo,
name of my son for whom this house and its collections were
destined.”
”My aim is to preserve as a whole the work I was attached to in
the reconstitution of an 18th century artistic home… this will
help to preserve in France the most beautiful objects of a
decorative art that was one of the glories of France during the
period I most loved.”
The collection, said the curator, ”is exceptional, priceless.”
”He was already 50 years old when he built this house and began
filling it with these treasures. The museum is a hommage to the art
collector.” — Sapa