In 1939 the German army managed to occupy the entire Paris. In that year, Madame de Florian was 23 years old. She had an apartment near the Opera Garnier, but was forced to leave her home because of the German army.
She had to make sure she was safe. Like many other Parisians, Madame de Florian left the city and moved to the south of France.
Although it was a difficult decision, she had to keep in mind that World War II had just begun, and Paris was a conflict zone, which meant she was not safe.
Fortunately, Madame de Florian managed to stay safe, but never returned to her former apartment. However, although she decided not to return to Paris, she continued to pay all the costs for that apartment until the last day of her life. No one has entered the 9th District apartment for seven decades.
This means that she always loved her first home and did not want to lose the apartment even though she knew she might never return to Paris.
She died at the age of 91, in 2010. It is interesting that only then did her relatives find out about the existence of the apartment in Paris. Then the first visit of the apartment was made to inventory the goods.
Auctioneer Olivier Choppin-Janvry was the first person to enter the apartment after about 70 years. He said that as soon as he opened the door of the house, he felt as if he had gone back in time. Although everything was covered in dust, it could be seen that every object in the house was kept impeccably over the years.
In the apartment there were carved furniture, expensive decorative objects and beautiful paintings.
The apartment was named after Parisian actress Marthe de Florian, who was famous at the time. She first became known for her love affair with the French Prime Minister Georges Clemenceau or the Italian painter Giovanni Boldini. Marthe de Florian was the apartment’s owner in what is called The Gilded Age (1870’s to turn of the century), which was a time of great growth in the arts.
Many valuable objects were found inside the house, but the most valuable was a portrait of the actress Marthe de Florian, made by Boldini. This portrait was highly appreciated by collectors and many people wanted to buy it, which is why it sold for 2.1 million euros.
The painting was the only object put up for auction, at least for the beginning. It was decided that the other objects in the apartment would remain there. In the meantime, the apartment has been named the “Time Capsule” and is now owned by the heirs and is not open to the public.
The story of the apartment is impressive as no one knew of its existence but it was an apartment located in the heart of Paris, and inside there were a lot of art objects that managed to keep so well in time.
If you find the story of this apartment interesting, you can see below a video showing pictures of it inside.