Above we see Elizabeth Rosemond Taylor wearing a headress that could have come out of Star Wars – worn before George Lucas graduated from high school? Have I missed my calling as an Art Historian, a…………. Art Director?

The Burtons were close friends of Banker Alexis von Rosenberg, Baron de Redé
a world class collector of art and banker friends, such as the Rothschilds. Did Rosenberg help Elizabeth with her collection?

“Rédé’s estate (notably the contents of his apartments at the Hôtel Lambert) was auctioned after his death by Sotheby’s and realized millions of pounds. Included in the many items, which comprised three catalogues, was a 32-light chandelier expected to sell for between one and two million euros.”

Consider the grand chandelier in the Phantom of the Opera.

Juan the Nazarite

The Masked Ball, Ca Rezzonico, Venice
by Lucius Rossi

In 1962, when Arturo Lopez-Willshaw died, Redé inherited half of his fortune;[7]. To manage it, he joined Prince Rupert zu Loewenstein in taking control of Leopold Joseph & Sons, a bank where he served as the deputy chairman. With Loewenstein, Rédé was closely involved in managing the money of the Rolling Stones; and he was a founder of Artemis, an investment fund specializing in the purchase of fine art.

Alexis von Rosenberg, Baron de Redé

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The Baron de Redé in the middle at the Oriental ball in 1969. Photo by Patrick Anson, 5th Earl of Lichfield.
Oskar Dieter Alex von Rosenberg-Rédé, 3rd Baron von Rosenberg-Redé[1][2][3] (4 February 1922 – 8 July 2004), aka Alexis, Baron de Rédé, was a prominent French banker, aristocratic aesthete, collector,[4] and socialite.
Rédé was named to the International Best Dressed List Hall of Fame in 1972.[5]

Contents
 [hide] 
1 Birth
2 Aesthete
3 Role as host
4 Later life
5 Death
6 Barons von Rosenberg-Redé
7 Notes
8 References
9 External links
[edit] Birth
Oskar Dieter Alex von Rosenberg-Rédé[6] was born in Zürich, Switzerland, the younger son and third and youngest child of Oskar Adolf von Rosenberg-Rédé, Baron von Rosenberg-Rédé (1878-1939), a banker from Austria-Hungary.[7] His father—whose mother was Hungarian, whose father was unknown, and who was adopted by a banker by the name of Rosenberg—became a citizen of Liechtenstein and was created a baron by the Emperor of Austria in 1916.[8][2][9][10] Alexis’s mother was Edith von Kaulla, a member of an ennobled German Jewish family that had been part-owners of the Bank of Württemberg. Redé was educated at Le Rosey in Switzerland.
He had two siblings:
Hubert von Rosenberg-Rédé, 2nd Baron von Rosenberg-Rédé (1919-1942)
Marion von Rosenberg-Rédé (born 1916), who was retarded[3]
Following the suicide of his father at the family’s estate Villa Rosin near Vienna, Rédé moved to New York City, where he briefly attempted to acquire American citizenship.[4][11] His brother committed suicide in Hollywood in 1942, whereupon Rédé became the third and last Baron von Rosenberg-Rédé, which was typically abbreviated as Baron de Rédé in France. In 1946 he returned to Paris, in the entourage of Elsie de Wolfe.[7]
[edit] Aesthete
Baron de Redé was a committed aesthete. In 1949, he moved into the ground floor of the 17th century Hôtel Lambert on the Île Saint-Louis in Paris and restored the building and its décor. In 2003, he was appointed a commandeur of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres,[12] for his restoration of the Hôtel Lambert.[13]
Redé’s notoriety rested on being a kept man. His wealth derived from his lover, Arturo Lopez-Willshaw (1900–62), a married millionaire Chilean, who settled $1 million on Rédé shortly after they became a couple. Lopez-Willshaw, however, continued to maintain a formal residence with his wife, Patricia, in Neuilly.[5] As Rédé recalled of the beginning of his relationship with Lopez-Willshaw, which commenced when he was 19 in 1941, “I was not in love. But I needed protection, and I was aware that he could provide this.”[6] In addition, he observed, “The money gave me the security I craved, and it would also enable me to look after my handicapped sister.”[7]
In 1953, author Christian Mégret published Danaé, a roman à clef based on Redé’s and Lopez-Willshaw’s life together, the racy details provided by one of their close friends, Mégret’s companion, Ghislaine, Princess de Polignac.[14][8]
Lopez-Willshaw’s wife, a first cousin born Patricia Lopez-Huici, was cool towards her husband’s companion though the three often traveled together and attended social events as a group.[7][15] In 1962, when Arturo Lopez-Willshaw died, Redé inherited half of his fortune;[7]. To manage it, he joined Prince Rupert zu Loewenstein in taking control of Leopold Joseph & Sons, a bank where he served as the deputy chairman. With Loewenstein, Rédé was closely involved in managing the money of the Rolling Stones; and he was a founder of Artemis, an investment fund specializing in the purchase of fine art.

[edit] Role as host
The baron was described as “the Eugene de Rastignac of modern Paris” by Sir Henry ‘Chips’ Channon and as “the best host in all Europe”; his parties were famous.[16]
Rédé’s Hôtel Lambert dinner parties were at the center of le tout Paris. Philippe Jullian described the world of Lopez-Willshaw and Redé as like a small 18th-century court: Members of the circle included the poet and patron of the Surrealists, Marie-Laure de Noailles (1902–70); such musicians as Henri Sauguet, Georges Auric, and Francis Poulenc; and the artist Christian Berard. Important influences were the interior decorators Georges Geffroy and Victor Grandpierre. Cecil Beaton photographed Nina Ricci’s costumes for “the elegant aesthete” at the sensational 1951 Bal oriental given by his friend Carlos de Beistegui at his Venetian palace, the Palazzo Labia.[17]
In 1956, at Alexis de Redé’s Bal des Têtes, young Yves Saint-Laurent provided many of the headdresses—the Duchess of Windsor being one of the judges—and received a boost to his career. When Diana Vreeland heard of the plans for Redé’s upcoming Bal oriental, to be given on 5 December 1969, she promptly contacted the Baron expressing her interest in having the event photographed by Vogue.[18] The guest list was the creme de la creme of the international high society, with such attendees as Queen Margrethe of Denmark and Marie-Hélène de Rothschild.
[edit] Later life
In 1972 Redé had his portrait painted by the fashionable painter Anthony Christian. In 1975 the Hôtel Lambert was purchased by Baron Guy de Rothschild, whose wife, Marie-Hélène de Rothschild was a close friend of Redé, who inherited her beloved dachshund “Whiskey”; the Rothschilds henceforth used it as their Paris residence.
[edit] Death
He died suddenly at the home of a friend, Carmen Saint, at the age of 82. His memoirs, Alexis: The Memoirs of the Baron de Redé, were published posthumously in 2005. Hugo Vickers was its editor and ghostwriter.[19]
Rédé’s estate (notably the contents of his apartments at the Hôtel Lambert) was auctioned after his death by Sotheby’s and realized millions of pounds. Included in the many items, which co