I am very pleased that we are here today in your
beautiful mansion, to express our gratitude to a
and a very great friend of our
national heritage.
Kraemer: the name is mythical in the profession of antique dealers. Founded
in the 1870s, Kraemer House provided for more than a century
museums and private collections from around the world in furniture
18th century. This very well known and yet discreet house has
always preserved, for all the furniture and objects that pass through it,
the same level of demand. Authenticity, beauty, quality and rarity
remain its selection criteria; and as with diamond dealers, there are
has a complex equation to consider with each acquisition: it is
a culture and know-how acquired over several generations.
You are indeed, dear Laurent Kraemer, heir to a long tradition
family. The history of your family is that of a passion cultivated since
many generations for works of art, that also of a generosity to
which I want to pay tribute to today.
This story is first and foremost about your great-grandfather, Lucien,
who, after leaving Alsace during the Prussian occupation, founded the
first store on Rue de Penthièvre in Paris, before moving, around 1880,
rue Tronchet. Since then, the Rothschild, Camondo and
Vanderbilt were his clients, like many collectors and
of aristocratic families from Central Europe and pre-revolutionary Russia.
In 1928, Lucien and his son Raymond, your grandfather, acquired the hotel
43 rue de Monceau, a few steps from the Camondo street,
friends, neighbours and customers – now the Nissim Museum in Camondo,
that your family continues to provide unwavering support through
including acquisitions, the rehabilitation of the private apartment of
Nissim de Camondo or the sponsorship of exhibitions, such as
example the next event organized around rare drawings of
the workshop of Robert-Joseph Auguste, goldsmith of Louis XVI.
World War II would brutally disperse this heritage
In 1945, Raymond Kraemer and his son Philippe, your father,
business. They rebuilt patiently, with the same
quality requirement, the company founded by Lucien, by launching itself
particularly in the acquisition of Boulle furniture, at a time when the
market had somewhat abandoned them. It is notably this detour by
the Great Century that will allow them to resume gradually, after two
decades of efforts, their first place on the furniture market of
next century.
Your private mansion is indeed an exceptional setting not only for
these unique pieces from the time of Louis XIV, but also, again, for
this eighteenth century where in Europe, to paraphrase Marc Fumaroli, the
furniture spoke French.
From 1970, with your brother Olivier, you continued this work
maintaining a high level of demand and contributing to the
the gallery. Looking towards the future, you have opened some salons at the
very contemporary decor, where furniture and objects of art integrate
marvellously. No museums, no windows, no witness apartments: the
poetry of antique dealers, on their crest line, it is also knowing how to create
rooms that become objects of desire. Here, in this exceptional hotel of
the rue de Monceau, the visitor willingly loses his marks in this
maze of beauty, between the many living rooms and the multiple floors that
many surprises – including a hidden pool, I was told, where
A few stars in this world have already bathed.
The strength of the Hotel Kraemer is a presentation that, to resume your
words, “awaken” objects. In this regard, the
bold designs you have demonstrated for the booth
Kraemer at the last two Biennales des antiquaires: in 2008, in
placing your furniture and objects in two rooms formed by cubes of
contemporary glass facing each other and, in 2010, revisiting
the furnishings of the famous Oval Office of the President of the United States at the
White house with French furniture from the 17th and 18th centuries
– a beautiful gesture of Franco-American friendship. These style exercises
have demonstrated, which is important to you, the exceptional ability to
this historical furniture to be integrated everywhere, including in a decor
contemporary or universally known.
Today, Mikaël and Sandra, your nephew and daughter, fifth
generation of antique dealers in the family, follow with talent the traces of
their elders, always with the support of your wife Nicole. Because at
the whole family shares the same hunting instinct: your
talent for flushing out rare pieces contradicts the adage that we
often heard in the profession, according to which today, among
antiques dealers, we would not find anything. It happens sometimes that
you were buying coins that were once sold by your father
or even your grandfather.
The Kraemers don’t sell, we buy them, and sometimes too... your father,
in the 1960s, this had led to moderate enthusiasm
Henry Ford II, in order to prevent him from devaluing his stock: It may be
for today, Mr. Ford”. You also like
report this other anecdote: one day, a client told your father
Finally, Mr Kraemer, you never sold me anything, it’s
always me who bought you». It’s a nice compliment and a way to
say that the merchandise is exceptional. The address of the House
Kraemer is known to purists, collectors, and your family has
and continues to make a remarkable contribution to bringing together
major collections of art in our country. Museums
In this way, there are exceptional pieces, including
Rare and prestigious furniture of the eighteenth century, bought at your home.
This is the case, for example, of the writing table designed in 1783 by
Riesener for Marie-Antoinette, classified as a work of heritage interest
major» and recently entered the collections of the castle of
Versailles. Your skills as an art expert are worth being
also member of the National Expert Company. Because under the luxury
carpets, behind the tapestries of the «period rooms» and their
exceptional coins, we also guess the dark world of counterfeits that
call as much the vigilance of specialists as the imagination
romanesque.
A strong art market is clearly a considerable asset for the
heritage of a country; and in this area, your House brings a
of international reputation, it is one of the
first places in the art trade in France. You will
always strive to defend French excellence in
art trade and promotion of the Place de Paris throughout the world. With
you, the recipes of excellence, term too often overused, find
all their flavour: discretion and requirement are the ingredients
recognized both in France and the United States, where many objects and
furniture that has passed through your House are found on display in
the most prestigious museums, from Boston to Los Angeles. The Kraemers
are known, moreover, to be formidable buyers: if for
some purchases, you are ready to do crazy, it never goes without
a meticulous expertise of all the pieces you want to acquire,
fully disassembled, inspected, dated, identified. This requirement,
also in the choice of artisans and workshops with
which you work for the restoration of furniture: restorations
too flashy are never in your catalog, and you
can cultivate a taste for skating that requires all kinds of
technical compromises, on which, on a case-by-case basis, you always keep
the eye.
In addition, as a foreign trade adviser since 1991, you
contribute through your voluntary action to the development of exchanges
of France. I know how much your interventions promote the
the interests of the state and the art market in a
our country’s artistic reach.
I won’t mention all of the committees you sit on and
remember only that you are a member of the board of directors
of the Syndicat national des antiquaires, of the honor committee of the
the French artistic press, the association Art et Droit, the committee
Science School of Economics, Art and Communication (EAC).
The Kraemer spirit is above all the love of the beautiful, the rare and the precious,
but it is also the sense of sharing. You are indeed a generous
national museums. Pursuing a family tradition, you will
together with your father Philippe and your brother Olivier, have made
numerous and prestigious. The museums of Sèvres, Fontainebleau, have
received furniture, chairs, art objects and documents very
rare, often of royal origin, from the 18th century. Just like the
Palace of Versailles which, for example, thanks to your family, brought in
in its collections an inkwell of Marie-Antoinette and Chenets du
Queen’s Internal Cabinet, dated 1779, and most recently, with your
patronage, a Coquetier of the «pearls and beards» service delivered in 1781
for Marie-Antoinette. You are also part of the Cressent Circle
major donors to the Louvre Museum, including the Department of Objects
has been enriched thanks to you, in association with your father Philippe and
your brother Olivier, in 1994, of a shepherdess by the widow of Jean-Baptiste
Boulard, from a room of Madame Elisabeth at the castle of
Montreuil, in 1997, of a vase called «dolphin garden» in porcelain of
Sèvres and gilded bronze from 1781. The Kraemer family has a long history
generous to the Department of Art: your father had given
in 1985 a pendulum of the master sculptor Jean-Joseph de Saint-
Germain.
I want to tell you how sensitive I am to discretion,
once again, who has always surrounded these donations made without the
French museums, because your donations are not limited
at national museums, have always found with you an complicity
attentive and generous. The enrichment of our heritage must
contribution. For a long time, the world of
and that of the museums and their administration looked at each other,
as they say, in earthenware dogs. If the dialogue is today
much more constructive, it is also because houses like the
long-standing and close ties to museums, including
have contributed a lot - through bodies, for example, such as
the Observatory of the art market and the movement of cultural goods,
of which you are a very diligent and active member, representing the
antique trade having succeeded your father, who also participated
very faithfully for many years.
Finally, I recall, your generosity is also expressed by your
participation in many social and humanitarian works, such as
the association Nouvelles Recherches Biomédicales du Professeur Jasmin, the
Marie-Josée Chérioux Foundation, the Fondation des Hôpitaux de Paris, or
again the United Jewish Social Fund.
Dear Laurent Kraemer, for this taste you cultivate, this passion for
works of art and the past, for your great generosity, for your
essential contribution to the promotion of our national heritage,
name of the President of the Republic, we make you an Officer of the Order
National Merit.