The Camondos were a family of bankers and philanthropists – ‘the Rothschilds of the East’. Arriving in Paris from Istanbul in 1869, their presence was soon noted in the worlds of business, music, art and the wealthier echelons of Paris society. One man, Moïse de Camondo, made their mark permanent with the legacy of the Musée Nissim de Camondo, a magnificent Belle Époque mansion built to contain the family’s collection of 18th-century French art, and which became a memorial to his son who did not live to inherit it: Nissim de Camondo, a pilot during the First World War, was killed in aerial combat in 1917. With Moïse’s death in 1935, and the deaths of remaining members of the family at Auschwitz in 1943–44, the Camondo line came to an end. The house was bequeathed to the French state, and survived the war intact. It is now one of the most exquisite of the Paris Museums and French painting collections. The exceptional qualities of the house, its architecture, French furniture and beautiful decorations have been captured in superb photographs. Essays by experts associated with the Camondo museum explore each object and work of art in detail, tracing their history, setting them in context and bringing to life the deeply moving story of a remarkable collection.