Karl Heinrich von Hoym

He was born Freiherr ("Baron") von Hoym, and on 18 July 1711 together with his three brothers[2] was raised to the rank of Count of the Empire (Reichsgraf).

Accordingly, to his stand in society and wealth, Hoym arrayed his Parisian Hôtel with tapestries, Chinese and Saxon porcelain, bronze statues and, most importantly, paintings of great value by renown Old Masters.

Moreover, as the champion of an alliance of Saxony with France and the sea powers against the Holy Roman Empire he attracted the hostile attention of the cabinets of Berlin and Vienna, abetted by the ambitious chamberlain Heinrich von Brühl.

In addition, his connections to the French court and the queen's father, Stanislas Leszczyński, a claimant to the Polish throne, put him hopelessly in opposition to the ambitions of the Electors of Saxony regarding Poland.

Among his confiscated possessions was one of the few known surviving copies of the Theophrastus redivivus, a 17th-century anti-religious text, which was then given to the Bibliothèque nationale de France in Paris, where it remains today.