EN: Thought I’d share something different with you guys today…
Yesterday, as I was surfing the web, I found this amazing story about a woman and her Parisian flat that sat locked up and untouched for 70 years. It seems that Mrs de Florian, the owner of the apartment was the granddaughter of Marthe de Florian, a very beautiful actress that proved to be Giovanni Boldini’s muse as we’ll soon find out.
Anyway, Mrs de Florian (who died in 2010 at 91 years old), left the flat just before the start of World War II and never returned. “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”.
[I wonder why she did that. Why she kept paying the rent?]
After her death (or just before), she tasked a few experts and auctioneers to catalogue her possessions who then discovered the existence of the apartment placed near the Trinité church in Paris between the Pigalle red light district and Opera.
As the Telegraph writes, „Entering the untouched, cobweb-filled flat in Paris’ 9th arrondissement, one expert said it was like stumbling into the castle of Sleeping Beauty, where time had stood still since 1900. „There was a smell of old dust,” said Olivier Choppin-Janvry, who made the discovery. Walking under high wooden ceilings, past an old wood stove and stone sink in the kitchen, he spotted a stuffed ostrich and a Mickey Mouse toy dating from before the war, as well as an exquisite dressing table. In the gloom of the flat that had been shut-up for decades, he came across a portrait unknown to art experts of a beautiful woman by one of 19-century Paris’ most prized portrait artists, Italian Giovanni Boldini.” Turned out that the subject of the painting was Marthe de Florian, grandmother of Mrs de Florian, painted in a pale pink mousseline evening dress in 1898, when she was 24 years old.
Obviously the painting went on auction and it was sold for €2.1 million (around US$2.9 million) with a starting price at €300,000; the discovery is priceless and the story is more than amazing, BUT! Isn’t this place the most jaw dropping thing you’ve seen??? A frozen time capsule, filled with forgotten memories and covered in dust, untouched for 70 years and kept away from the world and the war…
Now that’s something beyond compare.
RO: N-am nici cea mai mica idee cat de verosimila e povestea asta (n-o mai reiau-detalii mai sus, spun doar ca e vorba de un apartament parizian neatins vreme de 70 de ani) si probabil ca unele dintre voi stiati deja de ea, insa eu am aflat abia ieri (desi facuta publica in 2010 am inteles).
Mi s-a parut ceva peste limitele extrordinarului.
Raportandu-ma la mine si la reactia mea initiala, si trecand peste stupoarea si extazul de moment, cred ca locul asta a urcat rapid pe prima pozitie in lista locurilor pe care vreau sa le vizitez. Destul de probabil ca n-o sa reusesc vreodata (de altfel, si presupunand prin absurd ca nu s-a vandut deja la un pret exorbitant si ca ar fi deschis vizitatorilor, magia lui se traduce fix prin ideea asta de virginitate, spatiu ferecat de timp care odata patruns isi pierde valoarea si devine compromis) dar daca intr-adevar ar fi sa ajung acolo, dupa ce au fost altii si altii si multi altii inaintea mea, motivul pentru care am plecat in prima instanta intru vizitare, e anulat. So…worthless. Ceea ce imi starneste o invidie teribila pentru aia de-au intrat primii in apartament, cercetatori, experti, whatever.
Oare cum o fi?
