The surreal Rothschild party that spawned conspiracy theories

Great personalities from finance, politics, culture and society that are not a must-read In Search of Lost TimeThey met in Ferrières. Names such as Audrey Hepburn, Grace of Monaco, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton attended an event. Cecil Beaton’s photo.was hired for this occasion by the Rothschilds, who spared neither effort nor money to recreate their special Guermantes world. The loss was so great that many forgot the couple’s strength and perseverance, doubting whether the couple could repeat a similar feat the following year.

Baroness Marie-Hélène Naila Stephanie Josina van Zuylen van Nyevelt van de Haar and her husband Guy de Rothschild formed an unusual marriage from the very beginning of their relationship. The peculiarities of their marriage are not because Marie-Hélène divorced her first husband, a French count and senator devoted to agricultural exploitation, but for the first time in the history of the banking family, a Rothschild was to marry a woman of a non-Jewish religion..

To run the union, Marie-Hélène had to obtain papal exemption, and Guy had to resign from the presidency of the French Jewish community. After solving such problems without risking their prestige and social position, it was clear that it was okay for Marie-Hélène and Guy Rothschild to circumvent the Proust party. The proof of this is that they surprised the world with something that could happen the following year. The weirdest and most extreme high-society event of the 20th century which this time was impossible to overcome.

twice as big

In 1959, two years after marrying Guy Rothschild, Marie-Hélène decided to repurchase one of the family’s many properties. This was the Château de Ferrières, a magnificent castle located on the outskirts of Paris, built in the 19th century by James de Rothschild on a single instruction to the architect: the “twice” of the Mentmore Towers, the castle the family owned in Buckinghamshire.

The result was an imposing building with an impressive appearance, surrounded by 30 square kilometers of forest. living room An 18-metre-high entrance hall decorated with caryatids, 80 bedrooms for guests, and a library with more than 8,000 volumes.

Used as a military facility by the Germans, first in the Franco-Prussian War and then in World War II after its restoration in the early 1960s. Ferrières became one of the most important meeting places of European society.. After the reception in 1972, numerous receptions and parties were held on its premises until the barons decided to get rid of the property. “Some rumors say this may be the last dinner at Ferrières,” the reporter commented. New York Times at the end of the history of the event while advancing some possibilities. “The alternatives are to demolish the castle, burn it down or turn it into an orphanage.” Finally, the castle was handed over to the rectorate of the University of Paris in 1975.

head to the birds

“Suits, evening dresses and surreal heads” were determined in the invitation that the Rothschilds sent to their guests at the party to be held on December 12, 1972. Since the texts were written backwards, they had to be read in front of a mirror.

Once upon arrival at Ferrières castle, whose façade was lit by colorful floodlights that gave the impression that the building was engulfed in flames, guests were met with service members disguised as cats dozing on the stairs.

Not awakened by the arrival of strangers, the benevolent cats escorted them to the doors of a maze they had to pass to reach the rooms where they would have dinner. They were there with the other guests, all wearing the obligatory surrealist headdresses, the only exception being salvador daliHe wore none of them, as his work inspired many of his creations, but realizing that his head was surreal enough on its own.

Unlike the Empordà painter, Marie-Hélène de Rothschild He wore a deer head that shed real diamond tears, Audrey Hepburn He stuck his head in the birdcage Helene Rochas It was carrying a gramophone on it, and another guest had an apple covering his face. son of man Magritte’s.

The dining room also did not contradict the surreal concept of the party. The dishes were covered in hair, the tables were decorated with dismembered dolls, the menu featured suggestions such as goat cheese cooked in “postoital sadness,” and recreated a sweet, life-size female body with candy and other sweets.

Surrealists and the ‘illuminati’

The surrealist party of the Rothschilds was undoubtedly one of the highlights of the 1972 season. Although the media was well-reported at the time, it wasn’t until the late 1980s that some photos of the event appeared in the book. Legendary Parties, 1922-1972 It gave rise to numerous theories about the night written by Jean-Louis De Faucigny-Lucinge.

Details such as strange headdresses and the black and white checkerboard floor of the palace or the top hats some guests wore were similar to Masonic iconography, giving rise to surreal conspiracy theories. attend a meeting Illuminati. According to these versions, an elite international oligarchy, of which the Rothschilds would be a part, would take advantage of the event to transparently determine the fate of the world, as it would have done from time immemorial.

The Rothschild dynasty, which emerged around an exchange house in Frankfurt am Main at the end of the 18th century, soon became one of the most important dynasties in the world thanks to its good relations with the monarchies in the European continent. gave them power and noble titles.

The financial assistance of the Rothschilds was crucial. for example, to finance the British war against Napoleon, the independence of Brazil from the Portuguese kingdom, the establishment of Rhodesia, the development of the railway, the construction of the Suez Canal, the exploration of raw materials around the world, and their operation, such as the Rio Tinto mines in Spain. In fact, despite the decline in strength in recent decades, mainly caused by the stock market crash of 1929, World War II , The role of the Rothschilds has been decisive and notorious in the development of world history in recent centuries.

As Ricardo Piglia noted in the Emilio Renzi notebooks, “the paranoid have enemies too”, so, like the surrealist party of 1972, They are nothing but the events of a wealthy class with eccentric tastes, with unquestionable power, openly and without veil.