Almost a century ago, on the morning of February 13, 1917, a troop of gendarmes stormed into the Hôtel Elysée Palace, a luxurious establishment built to accommodate visitors to the Paris World Fair of 1900. Their quarry was a Dutch exotic dancer who would go down in history as the embodiment of a female spy — Mata Hari. She was blamed for the deaths of 50,000 allied soldiers through her spying for Germany and was executed by firing squad later that year.

Today, the art nouveau building on the Champs-Elysées is poised to play another minor role in history. The ornate block, nestled near the flagship shops of Louis Vuitton and Hugo Boss, is now the French headquarters of HSBC.

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