Musée Nissim de Camondo

The Camondos were Sephardi Jewish bankers from Constantinople who settled in Paris under the Second Empire and built houses on the edge of the Parc Monceau. Moïse de Camondo (1860–1935), son of one of the two founding brothers, grew into one of the most exacting collectors of French eighteenth-century furniture, silver and porcelain of his day. In 1911 he had his parents’ house pulled down, keeping only the buildings on the street, and asked the architect René Sergent for a new one modelled on the Petit Trianon at Versailles. It was finished in 1914, with modern kitchens, lifts and bathrooms behind the period panelling.

He built it for his children, Nissim and Béatrice. Nissim, born in 1892, went to war in 1914, moved from the cavalry to aviation, and as a lieutenant in squadron MF 33 was shot down in Lorraine on 5 September 1917 while on a reconnaissance flight. His father did not have his death confirmed until October. Moïse withdrew into the house and the collection, and wrote into his will that both should go, in his son’s name, to the Union centrale des arts décoratifs. He died in November 1935; the museum opened in December 1936, the rooms kept as he had left them.

Béatrice had married the musician Léon Reinach in 1920; they had two children, Fanny and Bertrand. Under the Occupation all four were arrested and held at Drancy. Léon, Fanny and Bertrand were deported to Auschwitz on convoy 62 on 20 November 1943. Béatrice followed on convoy 69 in March 1944. None of them came back. With them the family ended.

So the house carries two griefs. It reads at first as an exquisite exercise in taste: old panelling, gilt bronze, the Sèvres services painted with Buffon’s birds that Moïse gathered piece by piece. Then the photographs, the son’s room, the plaque on the way out shift its meaning. It is managed by Les Arts Décoratifs and, according to its official site, has been closed for renovation since August 2024, with reopening announced for 2030.

What to look for

• The garden front, with its echo of the Petit Trianon, seen from the Parc Monceau side.
• The kitchens, with their great range and rows of copper, a rare survival of a working Belle Époque household.
• Nissim’s room and the family photographs.
• The Sèvres porcelain painted with birds after Buffon’s Natural History, more than three hundred pieces.
• The memorial plaque at the way out, recalling Nissim and Béatrice and her children.

Timeline

1. 1911Moïse de Camondo has his parents’ house demolished; René Sergent begins the new one
2. 1914The house is completed
3. 1917Lieutenant Nissim de Camondo shot down in Lorraine on 5 September
4. 1935Death of Moïse de Camondo; bequest to the Union centrale des arts décoratifs
5. 1936The museum opens in December
6. 1943Léon, Fanny and Bertrand Reinach deported to Auschwitz on 20 November
7. 1944Béatrice de Camondo deported to Auschwitz in March

Plaques within 250 m

• 84 Boulevard Malesherbes · 170 m

  Ici vécut / Jacques THIERAC / Compositeur / (1896-1972) / de 1936 à sa mort.

• 34 Avenue De Messine · 210 m

  A la mémoire de / Jorge CARRERA ANDRADE / 1903 ? 1978 / Illustre Écrivain et Diplomate Équatorien / Ambassadeur de l'Équateur en France (1964-1966) / Au Centenaire de sa naissance / Commission Nationale Permanente des Commémorations Civiques / République de l'Équateur

• 13 Rue De Lisbonne · 220 m

  DANS CETTE DEMEURE / Alfred FOURNIER / 1832-1914 / PROFESSEUR [illisible] FACULTE DE MEDECINE / DE PARIS / MEDECIN DERMATO-SYPHILIGRAPHE / DE L'HOPITAL SAINT-LOUIS / A VECU DE 1900 A 1914

• 13 Rue De Lisbonne · 220 m

  GUSTAVE / CAILLEBOTTE / 1848-1894 / MECENE / DES IMPRESSIONNISTES / ET ARTISTE-PEINTRE / A VECU ET TRAVAILLE / ICI

• 6 Place De Narvik · 250 m

  A LA MEMOIRE DES FORCES ALLIEES / QUI EN MAI 1940 REUSSIRENT EN / NORVEGE DANS LA REGION DE NARVIK / LE PREMIER DEBARQUEMENT ET REM / PORTERENT UNE VICTOIRE OU ELLES RECURENT L'ORDRE DE LAISSER ECHAPPER

Commemorative plaques, Ville de Paris open data (ODbL); transcriptions as published, in French.

Sources

• Les Arts Décoratifs: Musée Nissim de Camondo
• Les Arts Décoratifs: Nissim de Camondo (1892–1917)
• Les Arts Décoratifs: Béatrice de Camondo (1894–1945)
• Yad Vashem: Central Database of Shoah Victims’ Names
• Chemins de mémoire (ministère des Armées): Nissim de Camondo
• Encyclopædia Universalis: Musée Camondo
• Wikipédia: Musée Nissim-de-Camondo
• Wikidata Q1954498 (coordinates, CC0)