Cernuschi, a Milanese republican who took refuge in France after the Italian uprisings, made his fortune there and was among the founders of the bank that would become Paribas. It was at his house, around 1880, that the first ball in Paris lit by electricity took place. A voluntary exile in 1871, he travelled round Asia and came back with five thousand bronzes and ceramics, when nobody in Europe collected such things.
The story
Enrico Cernuschi was born in Milan on 19 February 1821. A republican, he took part in the Italian risings and took refuge in France, where he made a fortune: he was one of the founders of the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas, the future Paribas.
His house passed for one of the most modern in Paris — it was there, around 1880, that the first Paris ball lit by electricity was held. He had lost none of his convictions for all that: the Commune drove him into voluntary exile in 1871.
He went round Asia and came back to Paris in 1873 with five thousand objects — Japanese bronzes, Chinese ceramics, Buddhist sculpture — gathered in two years of travel, at a time when almost nobody in Europe collected that art.
He had a mansion built to hold them, on the avenue Vélasquez, at the edge of the parc Monceau that Alphand had just laid out, and designed it as a museum rather than a house.
In 1895 he left his collection and the house that held it to the City of Paris. He died at Menton on 11 May 1896; the Musée Cernuschi opened in 1898, one of the first museums of Asian art in Europe. He lies in Division 66.
The grave
A cylindrical stele topped by a bronze bust signed Antonin Carlès (1851-1919) and dated 1897, the year after the collector's death. The monument bears three coats of arms brought together: those of Paris, of Rome and of the House of Savoy — the city that took him in, the one he wanted republican, the dynasty that made Italy one. Nothing, on the other hand, recalls Asia: the collection that bears his name is six kilometres away, on the avenue Vélasquez.
On site, do not miss
The three coats of arms on the stele — Paris, Rome, Savoy — and the bronze bust put up a year after his death.
Visitors' questions
Where is Henri Cernuschi's grave?
In Division 66, Chemin d'Ornano, first row — the same alley as the bust of Adolphe Alphand, creator of the Parc Monceau, where Cernuschi had his mansion built. The cylindrical stele bears a bronze bust.
Adolphe AlphandWhat is the Musée Cernuschi?
The City of Paris's museum of Asian art, on Avenue Vélasquez, on the edge of the Parc Monceau. It was born of his bequest of 1895: the collection of five thousand objects brought back from Asia in 1873, and the mansion built to house it. It opened in 1898.
Octave de BéhagueWho was Henri Cernuschi?
A Milanese republican who took refuge in France after the Italian uprisings and became one of the founders of the Banque de Paris et des Pays-Bas. The Commune drove him into voluntary exile in 1871; he used it to travel across Asia.
Marietta AlboniWhat do the coats of arms on his grave show?
Three shields side by side: those of Paris, of Rome and of the House of Savoy — the city that took him in, the one he dreamed of as a republic, and the dynasty that unified Italy. His life summed up in heraldry.
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