The Paris Time Capsule Apartment

An apartment left untouched for over 70 years was discovered in Paris a few summers ago. Time to unlock the vault …

The owner of this apartment, Mrs. De Florian, left Paris just before the outbreak of World War II. She closed up and shuttered her home and left for the South of France, never to return. Seventy years later she died at the age of 91. It was only when her heirs hired professionals to make an inventory of the Parisian apartment she left behind, that this time capsule was finally opened.

Inside the apartment was found a painting of a beautiful woman in a pink gown. One of the inventory team members suspected this might be a very important piece. Along with the painting, they also found stacks of old love letters tied with colored ribbon.

With some expert historical opinion, the love letters were recognized as the calling card of none other than Giovanni Boldini, one of Paris’ most important painters of the Belle Époque. The painting was his. The beautiful woman pictured in the painting was Mrs. de Florian’s grand-mother, Marthe de Florian, a beautiful French actress and socialite of the Belle Époque. She was Boldini’s muse. And, despite him being a married man, she was also his lover.
What kept her away even after the war? For all those years, her rent on the apartment in a flourishing city had been paid, but it was left frozen in time. It all sounds like the perfect mystery.

http://www.messynessychic.com/2012/05/09/the-paris-time-capsule-apartment/