Parisian flat containing €2.1 million painting lay untouched for 70 years

[spinbaby]

I thought this was just a stunning story:

For 70 years the Parisian apartment had been left uninhabited, under lock and key, the rent faithfully paid but no hint of what was inside.

Behind the door, under a thick layer of dusk lay a treasure trove of turn-of-the-century objects including a painting by the 19th century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini.

The woman who owned the flat had left for the south of France before the Second World War and never returned.

(snip)

The painting was by Boldini and the subject a beautiful Frenchwoman who turned out to be the artist's former muse and whose granddaughter it was who had left the flat uninhabited for more than half a century.



http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/france/8042281/Parisian-flat-containing-2.1-million-painting-lay-untouched-for-70-years.html

[malaise]

1. Delightful story

:D

[suffragette]

2. Fascinating time capsule

[leveymg]

3. Starring Ann Hathaway and Brendan Frazier . . .

[DURHAM D]

4. more I want to know more

The article is too short.

[suffragette]

6. Agreed. Found another article with more pics

though no more info.
http://www.mysinchew.com/node/46082

[Arkansas Granny]

5. Wouldn't it be fun to just get to poke around in a place like that?

I'd love to just walk through and open doors and drawers and see what was there. It would be like a museum.

[Luciferous]

7. Interesting story. Thanks for posting!

[Hannah Bell]

8. the picture: once mistress of clemenceau.

http://www.theluxechronicles.com/the_luxe_chronicles/2010/10/marthe-de-florian-actress-and-demimondaine-or-cocotte-whose-beauty-once-won-her-the-ardent-favours-of-george-clemen.html

what astonishes me is that she paid for the apt - in pigalle - for 60 years & let its contents sit.

must have some bucks.

[Xithras]

9. While the story of the "forgotten apartment" is interesting, this was probably the owners intent.

It's a bit unusual to stumble across these today, but this sort of thing was once fairly common. 50 years ago, there was no such thing as a "U-Store", or a "Self Storage" business. If you had things that you wanted to keep and protect, but didn't have a place for them, you really only had two choices. You could pay some movers to box all of your things, and then have the boxes stored in a warehouse...where they would likely be exposed to bugs, weather extremes, and other dangers. Or you could find a small flat in a "safe" building and store your things there.

Flats had neighbors who would notice thieves, radiators to keep the climate consistent, landlords who would treat for pests, and doormen who would keep tabs on the coming and goings of the entire building. For the upper middle class with the money to spare, small apartments or flats were a FAR better option than warehouse storage.

"Discoveries" like this one were fairly common up until the 1980's. When rents started climbing and self-storage facilities became ubiquitous, they largely vanished. It's kinda cool to know that there are still some out there.