The Simone and Cino Del Duca Foundation’s distinctions are among the most generous and prestigious in the world, yet it keeps a low profile. Read more about a philanthropic organization driven by the desire to have an impact in the real world.
Émile Pereire’s mansion stands unobtrusively next to the hôtels particuliers (mansions) of bankers Abraham and Nissim de Camondo and Henri Cernuschi. Despite the fortune amassed by Pereire, who, with his brother, founded the Compagnie générale maritime and the railroad from Paris to Saint-Germain, the only clue hinting at what lies inside the classically-inspired building constructed between 1879 and 1881 is a sculpture on the pediment by Aimé-Jules Dalou of a woman facing an easel and three putti accompanied by symbols of the arts: a violin, a book, a palette and a chisel. Could that be a sign that the edifice, which was also a former steel company’s headquarters, was destined to house one of France’s most generous arts and culture foundations?
From Nous Deux to the Artistic Elite
Nothing suggested that Cino Del Duca (1899-1967), the head of a Franco-Italian press empire including popular titles such as Nous Deux , Télé Poche and the daily Paris Jour , was destined to be a successful philanthropist.…
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