The Nissim de Camondo Museum ♡

♡ In our opinion, The Nissim de Camondo museum is a little jewel. It is one of our favorite small Parisian museums, ideal to visit with the family. Located in a beautiful mansion on the edge of the Parc Monceau, it houses the private collection of 18th century art objects assembled by Moïse de Camondo. But It is especially for the visit of the mansion and for the poignant history of the Camondo family that we recommend this family visit. After the visitthe children will be thrilled to enjoy of Monceau Park right next door.

The Nissim de Camondo museum: discover daily life in a mansion at the end of the 19th century.

• This museum makes it possible to discover the functioning of a very rich private house from the end of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century
• The uniqueness of the Nissim de Camondo Museum is that all the rooms in the house remained as they were and are open to the public
• We discover not only the state rooms, but also the kitchen (a marvel!), the staff room, the private apartments with their ultra modern bathrooms
• The Camondo family mansion was built by the architect René Sergent in the spirit of the Petit Trianon in Versailles, in the aristocratic spirit of the 18th century.
• The museum houses the private collection of 18th century French furniture and art objects that Moïse de Camondo collected throughout his life
• The museum is open from Wednesday to Sunday from 10 am to 5.30 pm.
• The Nissim de Camondo Museum is closed on Mondays, Tuesdays, January 1, May 1 and December 25

The Camondo family: a tragic family destiny

• A visit to the Camondo Museum is also an opportunity to discover the tragic fate of the Camondo family
• The Camondos, a Sephardic Jewish family from Turkey, founded a bank in the early 19th century that became one of the most important in the Ottoman Empire. At the end of the Second Empire, the two Camondo brothers, Abraham-Behor and Nissim, left Constantinople and settled in Paris
• Their sons, cousins Isaac and Moïse, became well-informed collectors during the Third Republic. Moïse, a great 18th century art lover, built the collection of art objects that can be seen today in the Nissim de Camondo Museum and had the mansion built.
• During the First World War, Moïse's son, named Nissim after his grandfather, was the first of the Camondos to fight for France. He left for the front in August 1914, where he stood out for his daring. Assigned to the air force, he became a seasoned aviator in the army but died in an air battle in 1917.
• In 1920, his grief-stricken father Moses bequeathed to the present-day Museum of Decorative Arts the mansion he had intended for his son, along with the entire art collection he had built up
• The only descendants of Moses of Camondo remain his daughter Beatrice, his son-in-law the musician Leon Reinach and their two children. In 1943, they were arrested and interned in Drancy. Deported, they were exterminated in Auschwitz in 1943.
• Two wars swept away the Camondo family who had chosen to become French. Their name survives only through this charming little museum, dreamed by Moses for his son Nissim.