Its owner was known to accept paintings in lieu of payment — “My kind of hotel,” Picasso joked. In 1960, burglars broke in and stole 21 canvases, including a Braque, a Léger, a Mirò and a Modigliani. The influential Lord Brougham “discovered” Cannes in 1834, when a cholera epidemic interrupted his progress to Italy. Besotted by the Arcadian surroundings, he built a villa. Other foreign aristocrats followed suit, and 20 years later, Prosper Mérimée complained that “the English are established here as in a conquered land.

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Persons: ” Picasso, Braque, Modigliani, Miles, Brougham “, Prosper Mérimée, They’ve, Cap Martin, Queen Victoria, Countess, Balmoral, “, Duchess Anastasia, “ Bertie, ”, King Edward VII, Henry Clews, Frank Jay Gould, Murphys, Edith Wharton, Scott Fitzgerald Organizations: Art, Villa Americana Locations: Saint, Paul, Cannes, Italy, Nice, Beaulieu, La, Menton, Balmoral ”, Russian, Monte Carlo, ”, Antibes, Hyères