Woman Abandoned Apartment in 1942. What They Just Found Inside is Incredible.

[Coyotl]

PHOTOS

http://www.viralnova.com/paris-apartment/

Madame de Florian was a French socialite and actress who fled to the south of France during World War II. She kept her apartment in Paris on the Right Bank near the Opéra Garnier, though, in case she wanted to return. However, she never went back ...............

[sharp_stick]

1. That would have been a fascinating

key to turn.

[UTUSN]

2. She paid the rent until her death... n/t

[Coyotl]

3. A novel way to store a million dollar painting or two!

[frazzled]

4. I think the article has it a bit wrong

The owner of the apartment who fled to the south of France at the outbreak of World War II was the granddaughter of the "socialite and actress," Marthe de Florian, who is pictured in the painting in her Belle Epoque gown (not the fashion of someone in pre-war France). In fact, the painting can't be of the Mme de Florian who fled in 1942: Giovanni Boldini died in 1931, when the apartment's owner would have been around 12 years old.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2323297/Inside-Paris-apartment-untouched-70-years-Treasure-trove-finally-revealed-owner-locked-fled-outbreak-WWII.html

[herding cats]

5. The granddaughter of Marthe de Florian makes much more sense.

I noticed the conflict with the age of the woman in the portrait and how the woman would only have been 23 when she abandoned her apartment in 1942. Which as you pointed out would have made her too young for Giovanni Boldini to have painted her as a young adult before his death some 11 years earlier. I thought they were perhaps just romanticizing that it was the same person in the article.

Thank you for clearing that up for me.

[Tx4obama]

11. Madame de Florian continued paying the rent until her death in 2010 at the age of 91.

-snip-

The apartment was able to remain abandoned and untouched because Madame de Florian continued paying the rent until her death in 2010 at the age of 91. Despite paying the rent, she never returned.

-snip-

http://www.viralnova.com/paris-apartment/

So, the person (granddaughter) that was paying the rent would have been born around 1919.

[Tx4obama]

12. The painting was painted in 1898. Apartment was owned by the granddaughter.

-snip-

A Boldini portrait of his former muse Marthe de Florian, a French actress, was discovered in a Paris flat in late 2010, hidden away from view on the premises that were unvisited for 70 years. The portrait has never been listed, exhibited or published and the flat belonged to de Florian's granddaughter who went to live in the South of France at the outbreak of the Second World War and never returned. A love-note and a biographical reference to the work painted in 1898, when the actress was 24, cemented its authenticity.

-snip-

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Giovanni_Boldini#Life_and_career

[PSPS]

6. This was in the news last May

Here's the link. I think it was also posted on DU at the time.

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2323297/Inside-Paris-apartment-untouched-70-years-Treasure-trove-finally-revealed-owner-locked-fled-outbreak-WWII.html

[nilram]

7. this was news in 2010

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

[Packerowner740]

8. Amazing

Thanks for posting.

[Uncle Joe]

10. A fascinating time capsule.

Thanks for the thread, Coyotl.

[Liberal_in_LA]

13. cool pictures