Antoine Bernheim

“"One must remain silent about the powerful: there is almost always flattery in speaking well of them; there is danger in speaking ill of them while they are alive, and cowardice when they are dead." La Bruyère”

“"Friends don't exist. There are only people pretending friendship." Cardinal Mazarin,”

“Italo Svevo, the author of Zeno's Conscience.”

“discreet salons of the Travellers, on the Champs-Elysées.”

“Who suggested that dissatisfaction is the essence of talent? He remembers that Thomas Mann has his hero Gustav Aschenbach say it in Death in Venice.”

“"We have been calling him 'The Godfather' for years, Tonio the godfather," jokes his cousin Bertrand Zivy, who was raised with him in his childhood.”

“For several years now, Antoine Bernheim has chosen to indulge in his favorite sport: speaking openly what others barely dare to think silently. The concept of innermost thoughts only adds more spice to it."”

“he became the historic mentor of industrialists Bernard Arnault and Vincent Bolloré, and to a lesser extent the advisor of François Pinault, as well as Nicolas Sarkozy, at least in his early years. He also counts among his European "protégés": Italian John Elkann, the heir to the Agnelli dynasty, or banker Gerardo Braggiotti, also a former Lazard associate.”

“An inveterate bridge player, the man is as complex as his unusual journey.”

“The Arnaults, Bollorés, Bouygues, Lagardères, Dassaults, Pinaults, the Agnellis in Italy, Albert Frère in Belgium, or the Desmarais in Canada...”

“"Those who love money are never satisfied with money," affirms the Book of Ecclesiastes. "It is not so much the allure that money brings that concerns moralists of all times, but rather its insatiable nature."”

“François Mitterrand warned the Socialist Party at the Epinay congress in June 1971 against "all the powers of money, money that corrupts, money that buys, money that crushes, money that kills, money that ruins, and money that rots the conscience of men."”

“Antoine Bernheim only believes in the truth of action and the present moment. Everything else is mere speculation.”

“Was it ever, moreover, for Antoine Bernheim? When he is not at his office on Boulevard Haussmann, he devotes most of his leisure time to his "second life": his bridge tournaments in Biarritz or Crans-Montana, Switzerland... A way to stay "in the loop" by indulging in the favorite game of American billionaires Warren Buffett or Bill Gates.”

“Always be wary of media hype and showmanship.”

“For him, human psychology is at the core of business. "Money is not my primary interest. It rather serves as a means of power."”

“the Bernheims are an old Jewish family from Alsace-Lorraine, just like the Weills, the Schwobs, the Dreyfuses, the Blums, or the Mandels...”

“Two years after taking over the Grassi Palace from the Agnelli family, the Breton industrialist will obtain this mythical place in Venice, also coveted by the Guggenheim Foundation. "A haunted place. A carousel of ghosts," describes Bernard-Henri Lévy, who considers the industrialist from Côtes-d'Armor as his second father. "François Pinault, during the opening two years ago of the Palazzo Grassi, displayed his own skull radiographed by Piotr Uklanski. Here, at the Customs of the Sea, he shows the ghosts that made a storm there. The Carpaccio of the Ten Thousand Crucifixions on Mount Ararat, resurrected by the Chapman brothers in their evocation of Auschwitz and Nazism."”

“At the age of 27, Antoine Bernheim is hired by Pierre Wertheimer, Coco Chanel's partner and founder of the luxury group, to reorganize the Bourjois house in Paris. "A friend of my parents, by the way..."”

“At Lazard, he created Sovac (Society for the Sale of Credit Automobiles), a financing company specialized in consumer car loans, thus making Lazard Frères a significant force in consumer credit.”

“In 1927, he successfully orchestrated the rescue of Citroën.”

“Faced with the rise of Nazism, he left France in 1939 and became one of the main architects of Lazard's expansion in the United States after being appointed to lead the bank's American operations in 1944.”

“Upon his arrival, he organizes the takeover of Rue Impériale de Lyon and l'Immobilière Marseillaise, two companies with significant real estate portfolios in the city centers of Lyon and Marseille, which will allow Lazard to have a solid heritage.”

“Like André Meyer, Antoine Bernheim has a particular predilection for insurance: "the only profession that guarantees property and people during their lifetime and even after their death".”

“"The art of Michel David-Weill was to keep Felix Rohatyn and Antoine Bernheim, who were the engines behind the firm, while restraining them from taking over his office,"”

“The main managing partners are Jean-Claude Haas, close to the industrialist Jérôme Seydoux, François Polge de Combret, former deputy secretary general of the Elysée under Giscard, Hubert Heilbronn, David Dautresme, Christian de Labriffe, close to Bernard Arnault, or Hélie de Pourtalès, in charge of the international department and government advisory, and as such, "adviser to the central committee of the Soviet Communist Party"...,”

“"With Antoine, his opinions can change very quickly. He is passionate and highly sentimental. He is very generous with his affection, but he also needs a lot of affection. He has contributed to investing our profits in companies: Rue Impériale, La France, l'Immobilière Marseillaise... which has proven to be wise."”

“the Lazard firm, founded by the Lazard and Weill families in 1876 in San Francisco, after starting as a trading house in 1848 in New Orleans.”

“In the 1960s, he participated in the creation of the famous "collateral structures" that allowed Lazard to expand by taking control of the holding company Rue Impériale de Lyon, Immobilière Marseillaise, Sovac of which the bank only had 5%, or the investment holding company Gaz et Eaux, still chaired today by Michel David-Weill.”

“Through his system of cascading companies, he has allowed his protégés to build empires with minimal personal investment. In return, he demands absolute loyalty from his clients.”

“"Vuitton has developed extraordinarily. It is a more successful brand than Gucci, and the Sephora retail chain is doing very well. However, Donna Karan (DKNY) has not been a good acquisition," laments the advisor in the shadows. Sometimes, he also regrets that the LVMH boss does not involve his executives more in the profits."”

“"I met Bernard Arnault in 1984. It was he who came to see me based on my supposed reputation. At that time, he was not much. It was me who made him. When I met him, he had practically only debts. But he had a strategic vision and goals," recognizes Antoine Bernheim,”

“"For Bernard Arnault, I did everything. I stood as a guarantor vis-à-vis the banking system. I supported him wholeheartedly, but he doesn't always remember it very well,"”

“"Certainly, he had targets. He wanted to buy Boussac, which belonged to the Willot brothers, then the Dior perfumes because Dior Couture was part of Boussac. He had targets and considerable determination. But at the time, he didn't have the financial means or the connections. I helped him until he reached the top," sums up the former associate of Lazard.”

“In Croix, in the upscale suburbs of Lille, Bernard Arnault has neighbors who are descendants of the Mulliez, Prouvost, Masurel, or Dewavrin families...”

“As for his favorite saying: "gratitude is a disease of the dog, not contagious to humans," he sees it as a form of provocation to "lighten the atmosphere."”

“"Yes, he obviously helped, especially on two important occasions: the takeover of Boussac in 1984, and then when LVMH was acquired in 1988. Antoine Bernheim immediately believed in Bernard Arnault. He was impressed by his audacity. It was necessary to assess the risk to determine whether it was fatal or not."”

“"Antoine Bernheim told Bernard Arnault, 'I am willing to take the risk up to the same amount as you.' He committed to investing 90 million francs on behalf of Lazard, matching Bernard Arnault's investment level. This commitment by Antoine Bernheim gave confidence to other investors. We managed to complete the fundraising round, which was far from certain at the time due to Boussac's second consecutive bankruptcy."”

“According to the original legal arrangement that he himself had put together, the Willot brothers would lend their shares to Bernard Arnault so that he could drive the recovery of the Boussac empire, avoid liquidation, and then return the shares to their owners. One year later, the industrialist would buy the remaining shares from the Willot brothers, after restructuring the group by creating a cascade of holdings. "The negotiations were very tough because these were not easy people. They started threatening legal action. Barely had the ink dried, they only thought about reneging on their word..."”

“"Antoine Bernheim sometimes likes to play the victim: 'I am nothing anymore, nobody talks to me...' When he says that he is not interested in money, everyone finds it amusing," corrects one of his close acquaintances. "Comedian, tragedian..." his cousin Bertrand Zivy ironically remarks.”