Inside spooky Paris apartment abandoned since WWII with Mickey Mouse doll

20 July 2023 , 23:24

438 0

The Paris apartment contains abandoned furniture and toys - now forgotten and covered in dust (Image: AFP/GETTY)

A abandoned apartment has been frozen in time after its owner fled before the outbreak of World War II.

The Paris apartment remained untouched for decades – with its eerie interior left exactly as its 91-year-old resident had left it.

Images from the property in Paris’s ninth arrondissement even show a lonely Mikey Mouse toy left behind by former owner Mrs De Florian’s.

After the conflict ended, Mrs De Florian’s did not return home - with furniture and possessions left in place for years untouched - despite Mrs Florian continuing to unknowingly pay bills for the property.

Layers of dust and grime now coating her treasures after years of being forgotten in the hime located near a church in Paris’s ninth arrondissement, between Pigalle red light district and Opera, reports the Daily Star.

Give Ukraine western fighter jets to fight Russians, urges Boris Johnson

Once the treasure trove was brought to light, experts began cataloguing her possessions which included work from the 19th-century Italian artist Giovanni Boldini.

Inside spooky Paris apartment abandoned since WWII with Mickey Mouse doll

The Paris apartment is full of weird and wonderful objects (AFP/GETTY)

Having lain untouched for seven decades the abandoned home was discovered three years ago after its owner died aged 91 (AFP/GETTY)

According to the Daily Mail, one expert described the scene as like stumbling into the castle of Sleeping Beauty.

Olivier Choppin-Janvry, who made the discovery described the smell of “old dust” when they entered the building - adding that his heart skipped a beat when they caught sight of the stunning tableau of a woman in a pink muslin evening dress.

The painting was based on the artist's former muse, De Florian’s grandmother, Marthe de Florian, a French actress and socialite of the Belle Époque.

Marthe de Florian reportedly had a long list of ardent admirers whose fervent love letters she kept wrapped neatly in ribbon and were still on the premises.

Caked in dust and full of turn-of-the century treasures, this Paris apartment is like going back in time (AFP/GETTY)

The expert had a hunch the painting was by Boldini but needed help finding a record of the painting - while no books referenced the tableau according to Marc Ottavi, an art specialist who consulted on the work.

When Mr Choppin-Janvry found a visiting card with a scribbled love note from Boldini, he knew he had struck gold.

According to the Daily Mail, he said: “We had the link and I was sure at that moment that it was indeed a very fine Boldini'.

The woman who owned the flat, a Mrs De Florian, had fled for the south of France before the outbreak of the Second World War (AFP/GETTY)

He finally found a reference to the work in a book by the artist's widow, which said it was painted in 1898 when Miss de Florian was 24.

At auction, the painting was put up with a starting bid of £253,000 but skyrocketed for an incredible £ 1.78 million – a record for the artist's work.