La Piva: The Poor Jewess Who Became Queen of the Champs-Elysées

In June 1867, all of Paris was talking about the glittering event. The rich and famous of the protesting capital, its nobles and celebrities, were invited to the inauguration of the palace built by Countess Blanche de Donnersmarck (Blanche de Donnersmarck), known as La Piva (La Paiva), wife of the German Count Guido Henkel von Donnersmarck (Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck), at the prestigious address: 25 Boulevard Elysees.

The facade of La Piave Palace. Source: Wikimedia

La Piva, a poor adventuress from the Moscow ghetto, daughter of Jewish refugees from Poland, Esther Lachman, a street prostitute and top-class prostitute in the past, but the wife of a multi-millionaire count, a cousin of Otto von Bismarck in the present, fulfilled her dream of owning a palace on the Boulevard des Elysées.

An urban legend tells that early in her career, when Phoebe, who then called herself Therese, was forced to earn her living as an ordinary street vendor, an impolite customer pushed her out of his carriage after the fact, hastening to return to his business. Therese, whose birth name was Esther, fell and was slightly injured. It was at 25 Boulevard des Élysées. “In this place one day I will build the most beautiful palace on the Boulevard des Élysées,” she said indignantly. The revenge of the poor, humiliated Jewish girl, Esther Lachman, was not long in coming.

In a few years, a wealthy count, from a renowned Silesian noble family, will fall in love with her and buy her a plot of land at the site of her fall. On the plot of land inThe Elysees The coveted palace will be built, among the most magnificent in the city, which will become a symbol of her rise and social success and will remain in history. La Piva's palace is the only one from the 19th century that still stands on the Boulevard de l'Élysées in its original form.

The architect Pierre Manguin will build the palace over more than ten years, from 1855 to 1865, winning over a group of first-rate French craftsmen. As for the materials – yellow onyx (from a Roman mine, near Oran in Algeria), gold, silver, red marble, white marble, bronze, ceramics, porcelain, mosaic, enamel, wood, silk, malachite, alabaster, lapis lazuli, turquoise stones – the enamored count makes legendary sums of money available to his wife to fulfill all her desires and plans.

Inauguration of the La Piave Palace

The proud bride of joy, Countess de Donnersmarck, stands at the top of the huge staircase, made entirely of yellow onyx, the only one of its kind in Paris and perhaps even in the entire world, to welcome her guests, aristocrats, statesmen, artists, writers and journalists, alongside marble statues of Virgil, Dante and Petrarch. Let's take a look at it too:

The Countess displays not only her wealth but also her artistic and literary taste. Some marvel at the magnificent splendor, which includes works by the best artists of the period, while others scoff at the eye-popping splendor, the Second Empire style design, at its most extreme, to the point of going beyond the bounds of good taste. La Piva's magnificent palace combines bad taste with genius, according to some.

The Moorish-style bathroom features a bathtub made of a block of yellow onyx (again! The mine near Oran has been exhausted), weighing 900 kg, and equipped with gold-plated taps set with precious stones. A second bathtub, made of silver-plated bronze, contains a third tap, the purpose of which remains a mystery. Some say it dispensed champagne or perhaps, more likely, donkey milk or a tincture of bergamot – La Piva was a great advocate of the use of plants.

The Countess bathed in the bath four times a day and then her maids massaged her vigorously with milk mixed with salts and lemon juice, with the windows open – the Countess had always liked the cold, which was beneficial to body and soul. Every room was filled with furniture, statues, pictures, candlesticks, torches, chandeliers, carpets, and more and more. The ceiling of the main living room, the “Grand Salon”, was decorated with a magnificent painting, “Day Drives Out the Night”, by Paul Baudry, a painter Opera GranierIn the role of day – Apollo, the sun god, stroking his bow, and in the role of night – a naked beauty, with generous body curves, awakening from sleep, for whom the Countess herself served as a model.

The former courtesan is commemorated in quite a few works, pictures, reliefs and statues in the palace complex, inside and outside, depicting Venus, Diana, and other goddesses and mythological figures, among others. At the entrance to the palace, above the gate, there is, according to the customs of the period, a medallion of the owner's face, designed as a Renaissance lady's duchess.

A huge red marble fireplace graces the “grand salon” while two allegorical female statues in white marble, Music and Harmony, the latter in the form of the landlady, sit on the cornice on either side. The architect Pierre Mangan, who designed the palace in the Neo-Renaissance style, did not forego a Pompeii-style winter garden. The carriage garage and horse stables were spacious, befitting the status of the hostess.

The Goncourt brothers, who were among La Piva's invitees at the event in question, do not spare their criticisms of the palace, which was full of exaggeration, and of the dramatic appearance of the Queen of the Evening in their successful diary:

Her dress with a deep neckline reveals fair shoulders and arms, still beautiful, but her white face, covered with a thick layer of powder, is marked by wrinkles, which appear black in the light. The eyes are green and beautiful but slightly spherical and the nose, pear-shaped, is flattened at the tip. On either side of the thin mouth, horseshoe-shaped depressions descend towards the chin to unite there in a deep old age wrinkle. The courtesan, still at an age where she can fulfill her role, looks for moments about a hundred years old, a frighteningly made-up mummy.

So much for the Goncourt brothers' words, freely translated.

It should be noted that La Piave did not like her face since it had aged prematurely and avoided being photographed or portrayed as she was. The photos she took with the caption “La Piave” mostly show other women. The mockers described her face as if it were covered in a plaster mask, so much so that she wore makeup. 

The sharp pen of the Goncourt brothers recalls the joke that spread from ear to ear, when no one knows who came up with the ironic pun that underlies it: La Païva, qui paye, y va… La Païva, qui paye, y va… La Païva, qui paye, y va… But whatever the wicked and jealous may say, after her marriage to the Count, La Païva's life is completely different.

She no longer needs to chase money, to fight like a hound and a snake to extricate herself from an inferior position. No, no. Her current goals are completely different. To further establish her position as an influential Parisian socialite, to lead, impress, build, promote artists, that is her destiny from now on. Her marriage is happy. In the luxurious salons of her home, Countess Blanche de Donnersmarck, formerly Esther Lachman, received a representative sample of the important people of the period: Leon Gambetta, Émile de Girardin, Eugène Delacroix, Paul Baudry, Pierre Mangen, Actor Le Poule, Théophile Gautier, Paul de Saint-Victor, Charles-Augustin Saint-Bab, Jean-Leon Jerome, Paul Lacroix, Émile Ogier, Leon Goslin, Arsène Houssaye, François Ponser. Ernest Renan and Hippolyte Ten preferred to avoid.

The courtesan was not universally accepted, but among her muse were those who frequented the salon of Princess Mathilde, who of course did not take kindly to her rival's success. Some of La Piva's enemies, like the Goncourt brothers, slandered the palace and its owner, mocking her origin and past.

The response of the satirical journalist and sharp playwright Aurélien Scholl, who returned from a tour of the Avenue des Élysées and was asked by his colleagues how the construction work on the palace was progressing, is well known: “Everything is fine,” he replied, “the main thing has already been done: the sidewalk has been paved…” Or perhaps, according to another version, it was Alexandre Dumas the Younger who said: “The palace is almost finished. The sidewalk is missing.” Two opposites that express the same idea… And in an article in the newspaper “Le Figaro” from those days, one can read a reinforcement of Aurélien Scholl’s response: “Although the palace is not yet completed, Madame the Marquise de Pieve can establish her residence there: the paving of the sidewalk has just been completed.” All stages of construction were covered extensively from all possible perspectives, in private conversations and in the media…

The Countess hosts dinners for men only (to avoid any competition, but it is also true that no woman from high society agreed to cross the threshold of the palace), ten guests every Friday, and twenty every Sunday. Guests are allowed to bring recommended acquaintances, on a friend-brings-a-friend basis.

The table is set in great splendor, the wines are fine, the dishes are appetizing to the palate, oysters, fresh fish and asparagus are transported by train, cherries, peaches and grapes come straight from the count and countess's country home, canned goods, an exciting innovation for the period, are also served for the guests' enjoyment.

The service is impeccable, the serving utensils are elegant, made by the best brands, the staff of servants is carefully selected, the brilliant and witty conversations revolve around art, literature and finance. The shrewd and practical countess speaks many languages, reads newspapers and books, regularly visits the opera, knows how to invest her money, hosts businessmen and bankers and listens to their conversations. After drinking coffee, they move on to the winter garden, which is covered with a glass ceiling. Visitors talk about the cold prevailing in the garden, which penetrates the guests' bones, but does not bother the countess at all, who flaunts herself in light and revealing outfits for her pleasure.

And how is the palace divided, then and now? The ground floor was intended for receiving guests. The foyer, done in the colors of wealth and glory, red, black, and gold, was used by an announcer to read the names of those coming before they were led to the living room, which faces the Avenue des Élysées. At its end is a smoking room, characterized by a window above a fireplace. The dining room was at the exit from the living room and is now the club's bar. Next to the bar is the winter garden, next to which is a small inner courtyard that did not exist in the Countess's time. This was the entrance to the palace.

The private apartments of the Count and Countess – on the first floor. Today they house the club's restaurant. On the top floor were the apartments of the service staff. The kitchen was in the basement.

From Moscow to Paris

The great courtesan, who will go down in history as La Piva, was born on May 1819, 17 in Moscow, as Esther Blanche Lachman, to Jewish parents, refugees from Poland. Her father was a weaver, according to one theory, and a cloth seller in the market, according to another. Either way, he was very poor. At the age of XNUMX, she married a Jewish tailor who lived in Moscow but was born in Paris. His French nationality was probably the reason for the ambitious red-haired woman's marriage.

Men are nothing more than a stepping stone to fulfilling her ambitions. A year after their son was born, when she realized that her husband had no intention of bringing her to Paris, Esther left her family, accompanied by a random lover, to conquer her destination city. There is no room for emotions in the heart of this determined and stubborn girl, whose every action and step is calculated with perfect composure, and she will continue to do so until the end of her life. She knew how to make the most of every situation and move forward towards what she had set as her goal.

Esther earns her living as one of the "lorets," that is, prostitutes who find their clients, which also include several regular lovers, Around the Church of Notre Dame de Lourdes, in the ninth arrondissement. And now she is no longer called Esther, but calls herself Therese. Therese soon advances through the ranks, with the help of the reputation she has acquired, and rises from the rank of “lorette,” a simple sidewalk prostitute, to the rank of “lioness,” that is, a socialite financed by wealthy patrons.

The cunning Therese befriends former courtesans and elite seamstresses who agree to “bet on her,” that is, to dress her in the latest fashions and lend her money so she can go to the hot spa towns, such as Baden-Baden, and to the theater and opera halls, meeting places between courtesans and lovers. With her great wisdom, she also manages to receive invitations to festive events, to parties in diplomatic circles.

Of course, she doesn’t shed any light on her past. Therese tells stories. She learned the secrets of eroticism in Constantinople, she says. Her first famous lover, the first stage of her status as a “lioness,” was the musician Henri Herz, a Jew from Germany who emigrated with his family to France when he was 13 years old.

The family was well accepted in the new country and Henri later received citizenship. FrenchLike Esther Lachman, he was also very ambitious and determined to succeed. And indeed he would achieve an international reputation as a pianist, compose many works for the piano, establish a family piano manufacturing factory at 48 rue de la Victoire, open a magnificent concert hall there, and have famous students. For some reason, he was forgotten over time, but Biography released in 2011, which also sheds light on musical life in 19th century France, somewhat corrects the injustice done to him.

Therese, 22, meets Henri, 1841, at the peak of his career as a pianist, in 38. Some say that to attract his attention, she fainted during a concert he gave. Either way, the plot worked. The virtuoso fell madly in love with her and from then on introduced her as his wife, Madame Eretz, even though Esther was still married to her first husband, the tailor from Moscow.

The celebrity takes his partner on his concert tours throughout Europe and introduces her to the intellectual and artistic elite of the time: Franz Liszt, Richard Wagner, Théophile Gautier, Emile de Girardin. Madame Ertz learns to play the piano and completes her musical education, receiving guests at 48 rue de la Victoire in the XNUMXth arrondissement, in the concert hall opened by the artist, who was also a well-connected and well-known socialite.

In 1842, the couple had a daughter, Enriette, who was raised by Henri's parents. The girl died at the age of 12, and Esther's son from her marriage to a tailor died, probably of tuberculosis, at the age of 25, while studying medicine in Paris. Many details of Esther's life are shrouded in mystery and cannot be determined with certainty.

The courtesan squandered all of her partner’s money, and he, impoverished, went on a tour of the United States without her. His parents, who initially disapproved of their successful son’s dubious infatuation, kicked her out of the house in 1848, and she immediately set off for London to catch new fish. Preferably fatter ones.

An urban legend tells that the courtesan traveled to her next destination with a saucer of poison in her pocket in case she failed to achieve her goal. But don’t worry, the cunning woman didn’t use it. Her request was easily granted, and after having tumultuous love affairs with wealthy English lords who lavished her with gifts, she returned to Paris, at the end of 1848, with full pockets, to embark on an affair with the Duc de Gramont, who was also the lover of the actress Rachel and the courtesan Marie d’Eplessis, the heroine of “The Lady of the Camellias.”

Esther's tailor husband, the father of their son, came to Paris in the hope of being returned to his bosom, and after rejecting him with contempt, he died of grief in 1849. In 1851, Therese married the Portuguese Marquis de Pieve, but the very next day after the ceremony, she revealed her true intentions to her naive husband: "You got yours, I got mine, and that's the end of the matter." Naive perhaps only in matters of women, if we are to believe those who claim that the Marquis was not a nobleman and had illegally appropriated the title.

From now on she would indeed be called the Marquise de Pieve, or, for short, the nickname that stuck to her, La Pieve. The heartbroken Marquise, whose title and property the courtesan coveted, returned to Portugal. The Marquise took up residence in the city mansion she had received from the husband whom she had abandoned with the cynicism that characterized her. The address was quite prestigious, 28 Place Saint Georges.

The urban mansion was built in 1840 by architect Édouard Renaud and its facade is decorated with angels, lions and statues in the neo-Gothic and neo-Renaissance styles. On the ground floor of the house, the Marquise de Pieve hosts prestigious guests for dinners, a prelude to those she will serve at her palace on the Avenue des Élysées.

Bismarck's cousin falls in love

A year after her marriage to the Marquis de Pieve, at the age of 33, La Pieve, formerly Esther Lachman, reached the pinnacle of her life from which she fell only into the arms of death, thirty-two years later. Bismarck's cousin, a count who owned coal and zinc mines, an industrialist, entrepreneur, businessman, multi-millionaire, one of the richest and most influential people in his country, but young in the meantime, 22 years old, serious, reserved, shy, modest, and inexperienced with women, fell madly in love with her, fell at her feet, and did not leave her until the day she died and even after.

He opened the gates of wealth and social success to her, she opened the gates of pleasure to him. Still, there was probably something about her, the courtesan who was eleven years older than her husband (!), despite the Goncourt brothers' descriptions...

Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, that was his name, was a scion of the Silesian noble family of Henckel von Donnersmarck, from which also came the director of the famous film “The Lives of Others,” Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, who was born in Cologne in 1973. It was he, Guido Henckel von Donnersmarck, who financed the construction of the palace on the Avenue des Élysées for his beloved wife, which of course cost a fortune, ten million gold francs.

From now on she would be called by her middle name, Blanche. The couple, Guido Henkel von Donnersmarck, the German Count, and his wife Blanche, lived together in Paris, richly and happily. In 1870, La Piave's marriage to the Portuguese Marquis who had given her his name was annulled, and two months after the annulment, she married the German Count in a Lutheran church in Paris. The unfortunate Marquis de Piave, who returned to Paris, committed suicide by shooting himself in the mouth in 1871 after losing all his money gambling (let's not forget that La Piave had already bankrupted him). Not everyone knows how to choose the winning racehorse...

Count Guido Henkel von Donnersmarck. Source: Wikimedia

Pontchartrain Castle

Heinkel von Donnersmarck participated as a reserve officer in the Second World War. France-Prussia in 1870, which ended, as is well known, in a crushing defeat for France. The defeated country was forced to cede the province to Germany. Alsace-Lorraine and pay her heavy compensation. It was Heinkel von Donnersmarck who advised his cousin Otto von Bismarck to demand a quick payment of 5 billion francs, a sum that was indeed paid in 1873.

In these moves, he was assisted by the advice of his wife, who knew Leon Gambetta well, from her household. Henkell von Donnersmarck was appointed provisional governor of the Alsace-Lorraine region, which, as mentioned, had passed under German rule. It seems that the provisional German governor greatly enjoyed life in France, in the bosom of his beloved wife, to whom he demonstrated his gratitude in many ways. In addition to the palace on the Avenue des Élysées, in 1857 he also bought her a castle near Paris, in the department of Aveyron, Pontchartrain Castle (Le Château de Pontchartrain).

The Count renovated the castle with the help of the architect Pierre Mangan, while the Countess designed the park and planted trees and plants, some of them rare. Fresh vegetables and fruits were brought directly from the garden for the sumptuous dinners at the palace on the Avenue des Élysées. The peasants were amazed to see the Countess riding a horse in men's clothing and participating in hunting expeditions. This was the couple's country home where they spent pleasant times.

 

In this castle, the Countess also received Leon Gambetta to discuss with him the issue of the reparations that Bismarck demanded from France and to work towards a rapprochement between the hostile parties. The Countess tried to persuade Gambetta to travel to Berlin to meet with Bismarck, but the French statesman relented at the last minute. The Countess' efforts achieved only the opposite, and her aspirations for a political career ended at this point.

Going into exile in the “Little Versailles” in Silesia

In 1877, fate struck. The count's wife was forced to leave France after being suspected of spying for Prussia. It was the war of 1870 that put an end to La Pivet's happiness, which she had achieved with so much effort. The couple moved to the family estate of the Donnersmarck noble family since the 17th century, Le Château de Neudeck. After the architect Pierre Mangen, a close friend of the couple, died prematurely, the command of the work of ennobling the castle was given to the renovator The Louvre Museum And by extension, the architect Hector Lefuel.

The renowned architect, who, like his predecessor, had legendary sums of money at his disposal, renovated the castle in the style of Louis XIII. He also drew inspiration from the Château de Ponchartern and the palace on the Avenue des Élysées. He added a second castle next to the large lake in the park, which was designed, in its turn, in the style of the Tuileries Gardens.

The great castle of the count and his wife (no longer exists). Source: Wikimedia

The Count and his wife employed top French artists and designers to renovate the mansion and purchased many French-made furniture and objects, in addition to some of the contents of the palace on the Avenue des Élysées, which they brought to their new residence. The Countess's goal was to recreate on a grand scale, or rather, a gigantic scale, her beloved Parisian palace where she had lived for the best dozen years – the pinnacle of her life and which she had been forced to leave.

To recreate both the Parisian paradise and the rural paradise, in short, a French paradise in Silesian exile. This is how the castle got its nickname “Versailles "Little Versailles" or "Versailles in Silesia." However, not all the surrounding peasants looked favorably on the castle owner and his wife, lovers of hostile France and its culture. Even in France, the country where they preferred to live, which they left against their will, the count and his wife suffered from the hostile attitude of the inhabitants. 

The Countess's husband hoped that life in the castle in Silesia would improve his wife's failing health. But seven years later, in 1884, her heart failed her and she died, aged 65. It is said that her heartbroken husband kept her mummified body in a glass case in the attic of the castle. Was this the episode the Goncourt brothers were referring to when they described La Pève as a frighteningly made-up mummy?

It is said that at his wife's funeral, the newly widowed man wept bitterly and swore that he would never marry again. Three years later, the count, who was then 56 years old and had thirty years left to live, married a 25-year-old Russian princess (forty years younger than his first wife...), Katharina Slepzow, and had two sons with her. After the count's death in 1916 at the age of 86, the widow continued to live in the castle and died there in 1929 at the age of 67. Of the couple's two sons, the younger one did not produce any descendants, but the older one continued the dynasty.

The mummy story has a sequel, with two versions. The first version tells that one day the young wife's foot was hit by a hard object in the attic. To her astonishment, she discovered the body of her husband's first wife, preserved in an alcohol solution, in a glass coffin. Only after the macabre secret was revealed was the husband forced to bring her for burial.

The second version says that the count forbade his second wife from entering a certain room in the castle where he used to lock himself away for hours. One day he forgot the key in the keyhole. The curious woman entered the room and, upon discovering her husband's secret, let out a cry of terror and fell.

Count Guido Henkel von Donnersmarck with his second wife, Princess Caterina Salpazzo. Source: Wikimedia

The legacy of La Piave

“Little Versailles” was Le Pève’s last work. The magnificent castle in Silesia was burned in 1945 by the Red Army, and some say by Polish communists who preceded the Russians. A joke of fate. She was born in Russia to Polish parents and fled her origins and the conditions of her birth, but they came after her death and, as it were, took their revenge on her.

In 1962, the Poles completely destroyed the remains of both castles, wiping their skeletons off the face of the earth. Of the “little Versailles,” only the park remained – 154 hectares with ancient trees and a pond, the “Palace of the Knights” added to it in 1906, the family’s private chapel and several other secondary wings, four giant statues by a French sculptor and his fountain, which was renovated (details below), and several smaller statues by a German sculptor.

The “Cavalry Palace”, in the Neo-Renaissance style, was intended for entertaining friends and is now a hotel-restaurant, much loved by the residents of the area, along with the park around it:

Cavalry Palace. Source: Wikimedia

The four huge animal sculptures sculpted in France by Emmanuel Fremiet at the Countess's request are equal in value to those by Auguste Caïn in the Tuileries Gardens. Emmanuel Fremiet's deer and bear, horse and lioness, ostrich and snake, pelican and fish were brought to the château in crates and placed in the park on high stone bases.

Neudeck Castle no longer exists, as mentioned, its past glory has been somewhat diminished, but its park, with its four impressive works, has been restored and is an attractive tourist destination in Poland. In the following photo you can see the entrance to the castle, which is now in front of the park, with two giant sculptures by Permier:

The park of Neudeck Castle, where the great castle once stood. Source: Wikimedia

All four giant statues can be seen Link This. Emmanuel Premier's Fountain of the Three Graces also graces the park after a very successful renovation:

Fountain of the Three Graces. Source: Wikimedia

The chapel of the manor, which was fortunately not damaged in the demolitions, is where the Count and his two wives, but not the rest of the family, rest. The chapel was built between 1895 and 1897, in the neo-Gothic style, for the worship of the castle's inhabitants and the surrounding area (not for burial purposes). The chapel is currently used as a Protestant church for the local community.

Chapel. Source: Wikimedia

The Count sold the Château de Ponchartern in 1888, four years after the death of his wife, to the businessman Auguste Dreyfus, who was considered the richest man in the world at the time. Auguste Dreyfus became rich by importing guano from Peru to Europe, and this can be read as Link This. Auguste Dreyfus' second wife, the Marquise of Peru, of Spanish origin, granddaughter of one of its first presidents, led a lifestyle in the castle that seemed to have been copied from the court of Louis XIV. 

The Dreyfuss children, two sons and two daughters, sold the castle in 1932 to the Lagasse cattle ranching family, who sold it in 2019 to a real estate company specializing in castle restoration that will not change the exterior but will divide it into high-end apartments, eighty-six in number, mostly intended for buyers with high financial means. Eighteen of these apartments, outside the castle, are intended for low-income families. The park was purchased by the local municipality and will serve the general public.

The palace on the Avenue des Elysées, a symbol of his love for his first wife Blanche and their happy life together, was sold by the Count in 1893 to the famous French chef to the Tsars Alexander II, III and Nicholas II. The chef, Pierre Cubat, opened a successful restaurant there that was frequented by the who's who of Paris. However, after the huge fire at the Bazaar of Charity in 1897, which claimed the lives of more than one hundred and twenty people, most of them from high society, he lost most of his customers and went bankrupt. 

In 1898 the palace passed into the hands of a Swiss banker and in 1903 to a private British club, The Travelers Club, who made many renovations to it and registered it as a historical site in 1980. The palace of La Piva, the only one from the 19th century remaining on the Avenue des Élysées in its original form, deserves this. The club owns the palace to this day and allows visits.

The club's members, 750 in number, are mostly successful businessmen and connoisseurs, all men (a nod to the palace during its owner's time?), who are accepted on a "friend brings friend" basis. To be accepted into the club, two handwritten letters of recommendation from the recommenders are required. The successful candidate, whose application is approved by the ten-member admissions committee, is required to pay a considerable sum of money. In order to continue to fill the coffers of the club that maintains the place, guided group tours are organized in the palace. Given the high demand, reservations must be made in advance on the palace website or on the websites of tour companies. In the meantime, for those who want to see the palace from the inside, here is a short excerpt from a tour:

La Piva also made history thanks to her jewelry, which she loved so much. The two rare yellow diamonds, one pear-shaped, 82 carats, and the other cushion-shaped, 102 carats, given by the Count to his wife Blanche, are known as the “Donnersmark diamonds.” They were inherited by the Count’s second wife, Princess Catherine, and redesigned for her by the jewelry house Chaumet: she wore the first as a headdress and the second as a brooch.

Princess Catherine. Photograph in the public domain

In 2007, both were sold by Sotheby's auction house in Geneva, one for 3.5 million Swiss francs (2 million euros) and the other for 5 million Swiss francs (3 million euros). Here is a video from Sotheby's on the occasion of their sale:

Also in Geneva that year, Christie's auction house sold a necklace of 2 square-cut Colombian emeralds, the depth of their color enhanced by cushion-shaped, equal-sized background diamonds, for over 15 million Swiss francs. The necklace was designed in 1882 by the jeweler Boucheron for the count's first wife, Baroness Blanche, and redesigned in 1900 for his second wife, Princess Catherine. The background diamonds are an addition to the second design and were not present in the necklace in its original design. Here you can see the necklace in a thumbnail from Christie's website when it was offered for sale:

but Link You can watch it in all its glory, plus specifications, on the same site.

La Piva was a unique woman. Several biographical books have been written about her more or less understandable secrets and turbulent adventures, about whom men from high society throughout Europe fell head over heels in love, and who, since she left Moscow, has never ceased to surprise with her determined, determined, and persistent struggle to achieve material possessions, fame, and power. Not to mention countless articles.

Esther Blanche Lachman – the daughter of a Polish Jew, Therese – a Parisian sidewalk prostitute from Notre Dame de Lorette, Madame Eretz – the partner of a famous pianist who has been forgotten in our time, the Marquise de Pive – a divorced courtesan with a salon in a palace on the Place Saint-Georges, Countess Henkelle von Donnersmarck – the wife of Bismarck’s cousin who built her a palace on the Avenue des Élysées, bought her a country castle near Paris and finally settled her in exile at the “Versailles in Silesia”. These are the descriptions of the one who has gone down in history as La Pive, one of the most famous courtesans of the 19th century.

La Piva, photograph from the archives of the Count von Donnersmarck family. Source: Website of the Museum of Fine Arts, Rue Rivoli, Paris

Visit the Palace of La Pieve

The palace can only be visited on Saturday mornings when the private club is not open. Certified guides offer tours regularly. Book a place as soon as a tour is announced. There is high demand and places are taken immediately. Be quick! Look for tours online or in the Paris show brochure (Spectacles et Sorties à Paris • L'Officiel des spectacles) which she also has אתר.

Alternatively, it is recommended to enter locate This (Ticketreduc) which contains announcements about current tours.