The Mendoub's Residence or Dar al-Mandub (, ), formerly known as the Forbes Museum of Tangier, is a cultural monument and property located on Mohammed Tazi Street in the Marshan neighborhood of

Tangier Tangier ( ; , , ) is a city in northwestern Morocco, on the coasts of the Mediterranean Sea and the Atlantic Ocean. The city is the capital city, capital of the Tanger-Tetouan-Al Hoceima region, as well as the Tangier-Assilah Prefecture of Moroc ...

Morocco Morocco, officially the Kingdom of Morocco, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It has coastlines on the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Atlantic Ocean to the west, and has land borders with Algeria to Algeria–Morocc ...

History

Residence of the ''Mendoub''

The governance of the

Tangier International Zone The Tangier International Zone (; ; ) was a international zone centered on the city of Tangier, Morocco, which existed from 1925 until its reintegration into independent Morocco in 1956, with interruption during the Spanish occupation of Tang ...

was entrusted to an administrator appointed by the colonial powers and a personal representative of the

Sultan of Morocco This is a list of rulers of Morocco since 789. The common and formal titles of these rulers has varied, depending on the time period. Since 1957, the designation King has been used. The present King of Morocco is Mohammed VI of Morocco, Mohammed ...

, who from 1923 was known as the Mendoub. The main office of the Mendoub was in the former German consulate, or Mendoubia. The Mendoub Palace was built as a residence in 1929 by Mendoub Mohammed Tazi.

Forbes Museum

The property was purchased in 1970 by Malcolm Forbes, the American publisher of ''

Forbes magazine ''Forbes'' () is an American business magazine founded by B. C. Forbes in 1917. It has been owned by the Hong Kong–based investment group Integrated Whale Media Investments since 2014. Its chairman and editor-in-chief is Steve Forbes. The c ...

'', who converted it into a museum. The museum had a collection of a total of 115,000 models of

toy soldier A toy soldier is a miniature figurine that represents a soldier. The term applies to depictions of uniformed military personnel from all eras, and includes knights, cowboys, Native Americans in the United States, American Indians, pirates, samu ...

s. These figures re-enacted the major battles of history; from Waterloo to Dien Bien Phû, realistically recreated with lighting and

sound effects A sound effect (or audio effect) is an artificially created or enhanced sound, or sound process used to emphasize artistic or other content of films, television shows, live performance, animation, video games, music, or other media. In m ...

. Entire armies stood on guard in the showcases, while in the garden, 600 statuettes bear silent homage to the Battle of Three Kings. The collection contained pieces from the figurine manufacturers Britains, C.B.G. Mignot, George Heyde, Elastolin and Lineol, Barclay and Manoil. Among the many battles reenacted, the collection also contained historic events such as the funeral cortege of JFK. The toy soldiers collection was curated and built by Peter and Ann Johnson.Christa Worthington
Forbes: he had 10,000 men
''Independent.co.uk'', 14 December 1997 After the museum closed in the 1990s, 60,000 pieces of the toy soldiers collection were auctioned in December 1997 by

Christie's Christie's is a British auction house founded in 1766 by James Christie (auctioneer), James Christie. Its main premises are on King Street, St James's in London, and it has additional salerooms in New York, Paris, Hong Kong, Milan, Geneva, Shan ...

in New York and South Kensington. Auctions went from $150 to $12,000 a set. Total sales from the auction amounted to $700,000. The Forbes Galleries in New York City today has parts of the Tangier toy soldiers collection on display.

Official guests residence

After Forbes' death in 1990, the property was put up for sale by his children and purchased by the government of Morocco, which uses it as a dependence of the Marshan Palace across the street and as a residence for official guests. For example, French President

François Hollande François Gérard Georges Nicolas Hollande (; born 12 August 1954) is a French politician who served as President of France from 2012 to 2017. Before his presidency, he was First Secretary of the Socialist Party (France), First Secretary of th ...

stayed there when visiting Tangier in September 2015. It is no longer open to the public.

In popular culture

The Forbes Museum was chosen for Brad Whitaker's lair for the 1987 James Bond Film '' The Living Daylights'' starring Timothy Dalton.The Last of the Forbes Toy Soldiers
''Ipower.com'', 5 October 2012

References

External links

Description
on ''Morocco.com'' {{coord, 35, 47, 28.99, N, 5, 49, 29.49, W, display=title Buildings and structures in Tangier Military and war museums in Morocco Palaces in Morocco