The Boghossian Foundation highlighted Heliopolis, the birthplace of a new city built entirely from scratch by the Belgian industrialist Edouard Empain at the beginning of the twentieth century.

Now a part of the vast Egyptian capital, Heliopolis was born of a dream, one which has always brought to mind the city of the same name in Ancient Egypt. Nearly a hundred Egyptian antiquities, ancient works and 20th century objects have been selected by the curators Marie-Cécile Bruwier and Florence Doyen. The exhibition invites the visitor to rediscover the influence of the ancient city as well as the the famous Baron’s founding company. A visionary and patron of the arts, Baron Empain was also Louis Empain’s father, who built the Villa Empain.

 

« All this is now admirable in an exhibition in Brussels, Heliopolis – The City of the Sun, organised by the Boghossian Foundation. Photographs, antiques (about a hundred pieces) and official documents are on display. The building that houses it is a superb Art Deco villa commissioned by Louis, one of the Baron’s sons, from the Swiss architect Michel Polak and completed in 1934. »

AD Architectural Digest Italia, May 2019
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