Banker Émile Gaillard built a Paris mansion for his collection of antiques

This strange and slightly daft creature, flying along the stone balustrade of a Neo-Renaissance mansion in the centre of Paris, is the banker Émile Gaillard. As you may have guessed, he came from a wealthy but provincial family. The banker assembled an enormous collection of medieval and Renaissance antiques, and built a veritable castle worthy of it, to house the lot. Today the Hotel Gaillard is home to a society for economic education, and the bearded little fellow with tiny hooves and wings reminds every visitor of the heights to which capital can raise a man