Письма к Камондо

Kamondo - semeĭstvo evreĭskikh finansistov rodom iz Konstantinopoli͡a, prozvannye "Rotshilʹdami Vostoka". V 1870-e, obosnovavshisʹ v Parizhe, oni stali filantropami, kollekt͡sionerami iskusstva i nepremennymi personazhami svetskoĭ zhizni. I izli͡ublennymi misheni͡ami antisemitov. V Parizhe Moiseĭ de Kamondo vystroil velikolepnyĭ osobni͡ak i napolnil ego proizvedenii͡ami iskusstva. Ego kollekt͡sii͡a stala odnim iz samykh bolʹshikh sobraniĭ frant͡suzskogo iskusstva XIX veka. I dom, i kollekt͡sii͡u Moiseĭ zaveshchal Fran¬t͡sii v pami͡atʹ syne Nissime, ubitom na voĭne v 1917 godu. Vsi͡a semʹi͡a Kamondo pogibla v Kholokoste.Ėdmund de Vaalʹ, izvestnyĭ khudozhnik-keramist, khorosho znakom russkomu chitateli͡u po gluboko lichnoĭ i neobychaĭnoĭ istorii "Zai͡at͡s s i͡antarnymi glazami", v kotoroĭ on proslezhivaet sudʹbu svoikh predkov, semʹi Ėfrussi, tesno svi͡azannykh s Kamondo. A knigu, sostavlennui͡u iz vymyshlennykh pisem Moisei͡u, de Vaalʹ napisal posle svoeĭ vystavki v muzee Kamondo. Ėti pi͡atʹdesi͡at pisem - ne tolʹko istorii͡a semʹi Kamondo v Parizhe, no i razmyshlenii͡a ob assimili͡at͡sii, o semʹe, ob iskusstve, o prevratnosti͡akh istorii i t͡sennosti pami͡ati.

The Kamondo are a family of Jewish financiers originally from Constantinople, nicknamed the “Rothschilds of the East.” In the 1870s, having settled in Paris, they became philanthropists, art collectors and indispensable characters of social life. And the favorite targets of anti-Semites. In Paris, Moses de Camondo built a magnificent mansion and filled it with works of art. His collection has become one of the largest collections of French art of the 19th century. Moses bequeathed both the house and the collection to France in memory of his son Nissim, who was killed in the war in 1917. The entire Kamondo family died in the Holocaust.Edmund de Waal, a famous ceramic artist, is well known to the Russian reader from the deeply personal and extraordinary story “The Hare with Amber Eyes”, in which he traces the fate of his ancestors, the Efrussi family, closely related to Camondo. And de Waal wrote a book made up of fictional letters to Moses after his exhibition at the Camondo Museum. These fifty letters are not only the story of the Camondo family in Paris, but also reflections on assimilation, on family, on art, on the vicissitudes of history and the value of memory.