Daniel and Nina Carasso.
photo © Fondation Carasso

Daniel Carasso, a Visionary and Generous Collector

 

Heir of a small artisanal business, Daniel Carasso became one of the most innovative figures in the history of the food industry. He dedicated his life to transforming the family company, a pioneer in industrial yogurt, into a major French global group.

Daniel Carasso was also the inspiration behind the company’s name: his father, Isaac Carasso, named the group Danone after the affectionate nickname of his son, “Danon,” meaning “little Daniel” in Catalan.

While Danone was Daniel Carasso’s life achievement, the love of art and fine furniture was a shared adventure between Daniel and his wife, Nina.

Both sharing eclectic tastes, they collected, with the same discerning standards, modern and contemporary painting and sculpture, 18th-century French furniture, Asian art, and antiques. They had one common criterion: quality.

From their shared passion emerged the Daniel and Nina Carasso Foundation, which, thanks to their descendants, funds research and education, the transmission of artisanal crafts, as well as projects aimed at making art accessible to evreyone. 

1929: Danone sets up on Rue André-Messager in Paris.

Daniel Carasso, together with his wife Nina, was one of the key figures of the industrial world who, driven by passion, helped keep art alive across generations, blending styles, supporting young artists, and carefully furnishing their residences with the finest artworks, notably from the 18th century.

Other major industrialists have also passed by the salons of Galerie Kraemer, sharing the same philosophy of excellence and passion: Rockefeller, Ford, Boussac, Vanderbilt, Wendel, Onassis, Agnelli, Guerlain, Marjorie Merriweather Post, Lauder, Dassault, and many others…

Each and everyone has contributed to the legacy of our Gallery, just as today’s visitors continue to do, in search of that rare masterpiece to enhence their home.

The Oval Marble-Topped
Mahogany Table.
A piece with a history full of twists and turns.

Daniel Carasso was a regular at the Galerie, and remained so almost until the age of 103.
He was a true "grand seigneur", not only because he was over 6 feet tall, but a true gentleman.

At each of his visits, a few quarter-liter bottles of Evian placed on the reception gallery’s table would surely catch his mischievous eye.

Daniel and Nina Carasso.

He acquired numerous pieces from us, some of which have now found their way back into the salons of Galerie Kraemer.

Among them, a beautiful oval mahogany table, in the style of Heinrich Gambs, dating from the late 18th century.

Oval marble-topped mahogany table, in the style of Heinrich Gambs, late 18th century.

Mahogany table formerly owned by Daniel Carasso,
now on display in our Gallery
(illustration from Le Meuble Léger en France, Paul Hartmann, Paris).

Flat writing-desk, attributed to Charles Cressent, Regence period,
Loaned by Kraemer to the New York World’s Fair of 1939.
Five Centuries of History, mirrored in Five Centuries of French Art, New York World's Fair, 1939.

Unfortunately, during the loading at the Le Havre port, a fire broke out in the bakery of the ship Le Paris, which was meant to transport part of the artwork to New York, including the oval marble-topped table.
The firefighters used such a huge amount of water to stop the blaze, that the ship capsized and eventually sank!

The table was rescued, but the marble top ended up at the bottom of the sea.

The ocean liner, Le Paris, in the port of Le Havre.

Such an incident would no longer occur today, as transportation is now handled by air — faster and far more secure!

 

A replacement marble top
was therefore made in the United States,
allowing the piece to be displayed as planned.
 

After the exhibition, the piece returned to France only toward the end of 1944, just after the Liberation.
A few months later, in 1945, while clearing mines in the Le Havre port, bomb disposal experts discovered a crate at the bottom of the sea marked KRAEMER.

And so, the piece was reunited
with its original pre-war marble top… perfectly intact.
A remarkable chapter in its history.

Art and Behind-the-Scenes Stories of the World’s Fair

 

The World’s Fair was a stage for anecdotes
that perfectly reflected the spirit of the times.

 

At the 1939 Exhibition
 

This exhibition was also a window into the future.
Visitors discovered, often for the very first time, objects destined to transform daily life: television, nylon, the photocopier… and even a machine capable of blowing chewing gum bubbles on its own. The future had begun to show itself.

France sought to honor one of its most iconic symbols: a baguette was sent to New York via diplomatic pouch to serve as a model for the bakery in the French Pavilion.
It arrived completely stale, a culinary mishap that amused many, but did nothing to diminish the prestige of our tradition.

 

 

Or the 1937 Paris Exhibition
 

The 1937 World’s Fair in Paris was not only a showcase of masterpieces and spectacular pavilions.
It also offered its share of curious, sometimes humorous, and often revealing of a world in transition.
A symbolic face-off: the Soviet and Nazi German pavilions stood opposite with each other, each displaying a monumental statue turned defiantly in the opposite direction.
Just a few years later, to everyone’s astonishment, the two nations would sign the German-Soviet Pact.

View of the International Exposition of Art and Technology, Paris 1937.

Another view of the International Exposition of Art and Technology, Paris 1937.
(On the left, the Soviet Pavilion, and on the right, the German Pavilion).

More Recently,
this Oval Marble-Topped Table
was featured in the Louis Vuitton
High Jewelry exhibition. 

During the exhibition, this table served as a refined setting for magnificent jewelry pieces, with several of our pieces of furniture, like this Longcase Clock.

Louis Vuitton High Jewelry event, Awakened Hands, Awakened Minds,
(Saint-Tropez, Villa Bagatelle, 2024).