Letters to Camondo

A tragic family history told in a collection of imaginary letters to a famed collector Moïse de Camondo.. 63 rue de Monceau ParisDear friendAs you may have guessed by now I am not in your house by accident. I know your street rather well.. Count Moïse de Camondo lived a few doors away from Edmund de Waal’s forebears the Ephrussi first encountered in his bestselling memoir The Hare with Amber Eyes. Like the Ephrussi the Camondos were part of belle epoque high society. They were also targets of antisemitism.. Camondo created a spectacular house and filled it with the greatest private collection of French eighteenth-century art for his son Nissim to inherit. But when Nissim was killed in the First World War it became a memorial and upon the Count’s death was bequeathed to France.. The Musée Nissim de Camondo has remained unchanged since 1936. De Waal explores the lavish rooms and detailed archives and uncovers new layers to the family story. In a series of haunting letters addressed to the Count he tells us what happened next.