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Count Isaac de Camondo (born 3 July 1851 in Istanbul; died 7 April 1911 in Paris) was a member of the House of Camondo, noted primarily as an art collector [1] with a noteworthy interest in the then "avant-garde" artists of the Impressionist [2] and Post-Impressionist movements. He bequeathed his collection to The Louvre in 1908, [3] for which a new suite of exhibition rooms was arranged on the second floor of the wing between the Pavillon Mollien and the Grande Galerie and opened in mid-1914. [4]: 281
He inherited the principal role in the family's banking business in 1889, [5] [6] but did not display interest in the bank's development and closed its Istanbul operations in 1894. [4]: 213 He was also a skilled amateur composer. [7]
A generous philanthropist who did not insist on giving his name to initiatives he sponsored, he was instrumental in the creation of the Société des amis du Louvre [4]: 272 and in the establishment of the Théâtre des Champs-Élysées by Gabriel Astruc. [4]: 265