Baron Edmond de Rothschild, a prominent French banker whose extensive holdings included Bordeaux vineyards, has died aged 71.
Rothschild, whose Jewish father was a senator who voted against the Vichy regime during the Second World War and moved to Switzerland, died of emphysema in Geneva on Sunday.
Rothschild had suffered from cardiovascular problems in recent years and repeatedly underwent surgery, said the spokesman for Rothschild's holdings.
Rothschild was president of his Geneva-based bank and financial companies and the Luxembourg-based Leicom Fund. He was former president of the Israel General Bank in Tel Aviv, of the Israeli-based Caesarea Development Corp Ltd, and the Israel European Company Isrop in Luxembourg, among other companies. He was also president of the French Hotels Mountain Hotels Co.
The Rothschild family is widely known for its wineries in the Bordeaux region, including the baron's Chateau Clark.
An avid art collector, Rothschild donated works to the Louvre Museum in Paris. He was named commander of the Legion of Honor in 1994 and of the Order of Arts and Letters in 1990.
The baron's father, Baron Maurice de Rothschild, voted in the Senate against Marshal Philippe Petain in 1940 when Petain formed the collaborationist Vichy regime. He moved the family to Switzerland, leaving their eighteenth-century mansion that is now the US Embassy residence.
After the Nazis occupied Paris, the Luftwaffe turned the residence into an officers' club. The mansion off the Champs-Elysees became a club for the British Royal Air Force.
The American government bought it in 1948 and transformed it into the ambassador's residence in 1972.
Rothschild was to be buried at Chateau Clark this week in a private ceremony. He is survived by his son Benjamin, 34.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article