Son of a dynasty

The ever-wandering Jew in the Asian marketplace

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
THE KRAEMER family. Mikael is on the left521 (photo credit: Courtesy)
THE KRAEMER family. Mikael is on the left521
(photo credit: Courtesy)
He is one of the most eligible of Jewish bachelors – handsome, charismatic, well-educated, committed to the Zionist ideal, articulate and affluent. We are sitting in a dining destination in the spacious entrance lobby of the Marina Bay Sands Singapore, and he is expounding on 18th-century French furniture, the decorative arts, the potential of the Asian market, the Zionist cause and the splendor of the Israel Museum.
No, he’s not a Sabra.
“I’m not born in Israel, but I was made in Israel,” says Mikael Kraemer with a twinkle in his eye. He was born in Paris on May 9, he explains, and his parents vacationed in Jerusalem the previous August.
Kraemer, 32, belongs to the younger generation of a family dynasty that in 1875 founded the Kraemer Gallery, which deals in antique furniture and decorative arts, specializing in 18thcentury French furniture of the eras of Louis XIV, Louis XV and Louis XVI – some of which actually graced the royal palaces. Theirs is believed to be the most veteran family-run company in Paris, and its members live in the building where the business is located – on the quiet but prestigious Rue de Monceau.
The enterprise was founded by Kraemer’s great-great-grandfather, Lucien Kraemer, who left Prussian-occupied Alsace for Paris, where he established an art dealership. In 1875, he opened a small shop, moving to larger premises in 1880.
In 1928, Lucien and his son Raymond acquired an elegant townhouse at 43 Rue de Monceau, which served both as a gallery and the family’s private residence.
During World War II, the Kraemer family fled to the South of France, where they lived under false identities.
One day, Kraemer’s great-grandmother was addressed by her real name by a hotel concierge. She tried to tell him that he was mistaken, but he knew her from the luxurious Casino Deauville where he had been employed before the war, and assured her that she had nothing to fear. He told her that although he worked as a concierge in the daytime, at night he worked at City Hall, where he was engaged in preparing identity papers. He subsequently produced false papers for the entire Kraemer family.
After the war, Kraemer’s great-grandfather Raymond and grandfather Phillippe returned to Paris, only to discover that the Nazis had looted their possessions and that although the house was still intact, they would have to start again from scratch. It took two decades before the firm regained its position as one of the leading companies in its field.
When Phillippe’s sons Olivier and Laurent entered the business, his advice to them was, “Don’t try to be the biggest. Be the best.” Given the names of some of the people who are among the company’s clientele, it is obvious that his counsel was taken to heart. Rothschilds, Rockefellers, Sassoons, Vanderbilts and other aristocrats, most of whom can be found on the Forbes list of billionaires, have found their way to Kraemer & Cie almost since the very beginning – and returned after the war when the family was back in business.
Kraemer, who is Olivier’s older son and a director in the firm, is the sixthgeneration member of the family to enter the business. His cousin, Sandra, who also works in the firm, has a baby who is growing up in the house on Rue de Monceau and will in all likelihood continue the family tradition.
On his maternal side, Kraemer is of Viennese background. His mother’s family settled in France before the war, and Kraemer’s maternal grandfather, when only 14, escaped the Nazis purely by chance. He was in a barbershop, and from the window, saw his parents being taken away by the Gestapo. The barber hid him, and at the end of the war he was looked after by the Joint Distribution Committee, which brought him to what was then Palestine.
This grandfather looked for relatives who might have survived and found that his sister, who had been sent to Auschwitz, had returned to Paris, where she had married and continued to reside. So he went to join her.
When we meet, Kraemer has been stationed in Singapore for two months, meeting people from all over Asia, Europe and America. He’s greatly enamored with the country, where “whatever your social level or country or origin, everyone is the same. No one will judge you. It’s a model of social integration. I would dream for my children to be raised in a society like Singapore.
It’s priceless.” He says he will miss Singapore when he returns to France.
The reason he came in the first place was to pay homage to Asian culture, which he says has profoundly influenced French creativity. A lot of the ornamentation in French period furniture and objets d’art features dragons.
This spawned the idea of an exhibition for the last 100 days of the Year of the Water Dragon.
The ArtScience Museum at the Marina Bay Sands was delighted to host such an exhibition.
A frequent flyer who chalked up visits to 74 countries by the time of our interview, Kraemer was planning to visit Vietnam, Mongolia and Myanmar in the near future. He considers Singapore the hub of Asia.
Both Asia and the Middle East are growing markets for antiques, he says.
In a business capacity, he has visited every country in the Middle East with the exception of Lebanon, Syria, Iran and Iraq, because affluent people from the rest of the region are among the clientele of his firm. Similarly, the newly rich in Asia, especially in Beijing, Shanghai, Hong Kong and Macau, as well as Asians with old money, have found their way to Paris and made purchases at Kraemer & Cie. The Asian market has been growing over the past five years, he says, and his company is now also making inroads in Thailand.
Many of the company’s new clients are yuppies who are not really collectors, but want to have a unique period item in their homes for snob value or simply as a conversation piece. Moving with the times, the company has installed a series of modern galleries in which historic furniture can seen in harmony with contemporary decor.
When visiting Muslim countries, Kraemer has never made a secret of the fact that he’s Jewish, and has been told many times over: “We are opposed to Israel, but we have nothing against Jews.” Kraemer says that he’s never felt himself to be in danger in these countries.
“When you respect people, there’s never a problem. When you go to any country, you have to respect its culture and traditions. I enjoy myself everywhere,” he says.
With all the running around that he does for business, Kraemer remains constantly aware of his Jewish identity and of his obligations to the Jewish people. He carries his tefillin with him to every country he visits, and binds them religiously each morning – except Shabbat.
He makes a point of touching base with Jewish communities wherever he goes, and enthuses about the warmth of the hospitality he has received from leading figures in Singapore’s Jewish community.
He is also familiar with the Jewish leadership of Hong Kong, and has made introductions between the Hong Kong leaders and those of Singapore.
“It’s very important to build bridges,” he says.
Kraemer’s family has long been actively engaged with and on behalf of Israel. His grandfather Phillippe, who died a little over a year ago, was a leader of France’s Jewish community and an active Zionist, particularly with regard to L’Appel Unifié Juif de France, which is the French equivalent of the Keren Hayesod-United Israel Appeal.
His widow Francoise and sons Olivier and Laurent are also dedicated activists in AUJF, and in 2010, Olivier was the recipient of the Yakir Keren Hayesod Award.
Kraemer and his cousin Sandra, meanwhile, have established Avenir (The Future), aimed at attracting members of their generation to Keren Hayesod. In May of last year, Kraemer, who is president of the Next Generation Department of Keren Hayesod, brought the children and grandchildren of longtime donors from many countries to Israel to spur them into continuing the family tradition. “Every continent was represented,” he says with pride.
His family also supports the Israel Museum and has contributed some of the furniture in the museum’s Rothschild Room.
In addition to supporting Keren Hayesod and the Israel Museum, the Kraemers also support the JDC, in gratitude for what it did for Kraemer’s maternal grandfather.
The Kraemers have strong ties with many museums whose permanent collections include 18th-century French furniture and decorative arts that have previously been displayed in the Kraemer Gallery. Among these museums are the Louvre; Château de Versailles; Musee Nissim de Camondo, Paris; Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles; Museum of Fine Arts, Boston; and several others.
MUSEE NISSIM de Camondo, which is situated on the same street as Kraemer & Cie, is of particular importance to the whole Kraemer family, whose antecedents had a close relationship with its founder, Count Moise de Camondo, from a family of bankers known as the “Rothschilds of the East.”
Born into a Sephardi family in Constantinople, Camondo was raised in Paris from the age of 10. As the heir to a vast fortune, he was given the best of French education, which not only enabled him to integrate into French society, but gave him a lifelong appreciation of French culture. His family had a tradition of being patrons of the arts, but Camondo took it a step further and became an ardent collector of 18th-century French decorative arts and furniture, which brought him into frequent contact with Kraemer & Cie.
The count built an 18th-century-style mansion in which he recreated an 18th century French palace; he had hoped to bequeath the mansion and its contents to his son, Nissim. But it was not to be. Nissim, a pilot in World War I, was killed in action in 1917. Camondo continued with his project, which he turned into a museum in memory of his son and of his father, who was also called Nissim. In his will, Camondo bequeathed the house and its contents to the state, on the conditions that the integrity of the mansion be preserved and that it be named after his son. The museum opened in 1936.
Camondo also had a daughter, Beatrice, who was a champion equestrian.
After the Nazi occupation of France, she won a riding contest – the finals of which were attended by a high-ranking Nazi officer. When he inquired about the accomplished woman rider and learned that she was Jewish, he ordered her arrest. Together with her husband and children, she was sent to the Drancy Internment Camp, from which the family was deported to Auschwitz – and from where they never returned.
The Kraemers feel obligated to aid Les Arts Decoratifs, of which the Musee Nissim de Camondo is a part, in guaranteeing its preservation, and where necessary, its restoration. The museum also contains Camondo family memorabilia.
As we talk, Kraemer catches sight of a French billionaire who happens to be his neighbor in Paris, also a resident of Rue de Monceau. He quickly writes a memo on his smartphone to look him up and show him the exhibition he organized in the hotel lobby. ■


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