The Camondo Legacy: The Passions of a Paris Collector

The Camondos were a family of bankers and philanthropists – ‘the Rothschilds of the East’. Arriving in Paris from Istanbul in 1869, their presence was soon noted in the worlds of business, music, art and the wealthier echelons of Paris society.

One man, Moïse de Camondo, made their mark permanent with the legacy of the Musée Nissim de Camondo, a magnificent Belle Époque mansion built to contain the family’s collection of 18th-century French art, and which became a memorial to his son who did not live to inherit it: Nissim de Camondo, a pilot during the First World War, was killed in aerial combat in 1917.

With Moïse’s death in 1935, and the deaths of remaining members of the family at Auschwitz in 1943–44, the Camondo line came to an end. The house was bequeathed to the French state, and survived the war intact.

The exceptional qualities of the house, its architecture and its beautiful decoration have been captured in superb photographs by Jean-Marie del Moral. Essays by curators and experts associated with the museum explore the splendour of each object and work of art in detail, tracing their history and setting them in context, and bringing to life the deeply moving story of a remarkable collection driven by passion.