It’s as if time stood still in there!

Covered in dust and filled with treasures from the previous century, walking into this apartment in Paris is like traveling through time. This apartment was left untouched for 70 years!

It was discovered after the lady who owned it passed away at 91 in 2010. The owner, Madame de Florian, fled to the south of France just before the Second World War began. People were stunned to find she own an apartment in Paris. She never returned to Paris, and 70 years later the apartment looks as if no one ever set foot inside after she left.

The apartment was found close to a church in the 9th arrondissement of the French capital. Hired experts made an inventory of all of Madam Florian’s possessions. Among other things, they found a very valuable painting by Giovanni Boldini, an Italian artist from the 19th century. One expert said that it was like “walking into Sleeping Beauty’s apartment, where time stood still since 1900.” Olivier Choppin-Janvry, the person who made the discovery, said that the apartment smelled like old dust.

This is, or to be more accurate: was, the living room.

This beautiful painting of a woman from the 19th century turned out to be by Italian painter Giovanni Boldini. It was auctioned off for a whopping 2.1 million euro! The woman in the painting is Marthe de Florian, Madame de Florian’s grandmother, who was a renowned actress and socialite in her time, and also Boldini’s personal muse.

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