Villa Empain

The Villa Empain is a former private residence in Brussels, Belgium, which currently serves as a cultural centre and exhibition space.

In 1930, Louis commissioned the Swiss-Belgian architect Michel Polak to build a large house in Art Deco style on the edge of the Bois de la Cambre/Ter Kamerenbos, in the emerging southern suburbs of Brussels, on what was then known as the Avenue des Nations/Natiënlaan (now the Avenue Franklin Roosevelt/Franklin Rooseveltlaan).

Despite the expense incurred in construction, Louis Empain barely used the house after its completion and lived primarily in Canada.

[1] After the war, the Villa Empain was ceded to the Soviet Union as an embassy at the initiative of Paul-Henri Spaak.

Disapproving of this use, it was reacquired by the Empain family in 1963 and resold in 1973 to Harry Tcherkezian, an Armenian-American tobacco entrepreneur.