Calouste Gulbenkian

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Calouste Gulbenkian
Calouste Gulbenkian when he was in his late 20's.
Born	March 23, 1869 Üsküdar, Ottoman Empire
Died	July 20, 1955 Lisbon, Portugal
Occupation	Businessman and philanthropist
Spouse	Nevarte Essayan
Children	Nubar Sarkis (b. 1896), Rita Sivarte (b. 1900).
Parents	Sarkis and Dirouhie Gulbenkian.

Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian (23 March 1869 – 20 July 1955) was an Armenian businessman and philanthropist. He played a major role in making the petroleum reserves of the Middle East available to Western development. By the end of his life he had become one of the world's wealthiest individuals and his art acquisitions considered one of the greatest private collections.

Contents 1 Biography 2 See also 3 Published works 4 Further reading 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Biography

Calouste Gulbenkian was born in Scutari (now Üsküdar and part of Istanbul), the son of an Armenian oil importer/exporter. His father sent him to be educated at King's College London, where he studied petroleum engineering, and then to examine the Russian oil industry at Baku. While still in his twenties he ended up in London arranging deals in the oil business. After becoming a naturalized British citizen in 1902, he was involved in arranging the 1907 merger resulting in Royal Dutch/Shell and emerged from that effort as a major shareholder. His habit of retaining five per cent of the shares of the oil companies he developed earned him the nickname, Mr. Five Percent.^[1]

In 1912 Gulbenkian was the brain behind the creation of the Turkish Petroleum Company (TPC) — a consortium of the largest European oil companies aimed at cooperatively procuring oil exploration and development rights in the Ottoman Empire territory of Iraq, while excluding other interests. A promise of these rights was made to the TPC, but the beginning of World War I interrupted their efforts.

During the dismantling of the Ottoman Empire after World War I, Iraq came under British mandate. Heated and prolonged negotiations ensued regarding which companies could invest in the Turkish Petroleum Company. The TPC was granted exclusive oil exploration rights to Iraq in 1925. The discovery of a large oil reserve at Baba Gurgur provided the impetus to conclude negotiations and in July 1928 an agreement was signed which determined which oil companies could invest in TPC and reserved 5% of the shares for Gulbenkian. The name of the company was changed to the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1929. Actually. the Pasha had given him the entire Iraqi oil concession, but he gave the rest away to corporations able to develop the whole, growing wealthy on the remainder. He reputedly said, "Better a small piece of a big pie, than a big piece of a small one."^{[citation needed]}

Gulbenkian amassed a huge fortune and an art collection which he kept in a private museum at his Paris home. His four-storey, three-basement home on Avenue d'Iéna was said to be crammed with art, a situation ameliorated in 1936 when he lent thirty paintings to the British National Gallery and his Egyptian sculpture to the British Museum. He was president of the Armenian General Benevolent Union (AGBU) from 1930–1932, resigning as a result of a smear campaign by the Soviet Armenian government.^{[citation needed]}

In 1938, before the beginning of the Second World War, Calouste Gulbenkian incorporated in Panama a company to hold his assets in the oil industry. It was Participations and Explorations Corporation from which came the name Partex (currently, this oil company, now called Partex Oil and Gas (Holdings) Corporation, is a subsidiary of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation headquartered in Lisbon).

By the outset of World War II, he had acquired diplomatic immunity as the Iraqi Minister in Paris. He followed the French government when it fled to Vichy and served there as the Iranian minister. He left France in late 1942 for Lisbon and would live there until his death in a modest hotel suite at the small Aviz Hotel. His Armenian wife died in 1952. They had two children: son Nubar and daughter Rita, the wife of Iranian diplomat Kevork Loris Essayan.

At the time of his death in 1955, Gulbenkian's worth was estimated at between US$280 million and US$840 million. After undisclosed sums willed in trust to his descendants, the remainder of his fortune and art collection were willed to the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation (Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian), with US$300,000–400,000 to be reserved to restore the Echmiadzin Cathedral in Echmiadzin, Armenia, when relations with the Soviet Union permitted. The Foundation was to act for charitable, educational, artistic, and scientific purposes, and the named trustees were his long-time friend Baron Radcliffe of Werneth, Lisbon attorney José de Azeredo Perdigão, and his son-in-law Kevork Loris Essayan. The Foundation established the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum (Museu Calouste Gulbenkian) in Lisbon to display his art collection.

[edit] See also

• Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
• Red Line Agreement
• Soviet sale of Hermitage paintings

[edit] Published works

• La Transcaucasie et la péninsule d'Apchéron; souvenirs de voyage, Éditeur : Paris, Librairie Hachette, 1891. OCLC 3631961

[edit] Further reading

For detailed background concerning Gulbenkian and the Red Line Agreement controlling Middle East Oil see

• Black, Edwin, Banking on Baghdad: Inside Iraq's 7,000-Year History of War, Profit, and Conflict, New York: John Wiley and Sons, 2004

For general background concerning the development of the petroleum industry in the Middle East see

• Yergin, Daniel, The Prize: The Epic Quest for Oil, Money, and Power, New York: Simon & Schuster, 1991
• Blair, John M., The Control of Oil, New York: Pantheon, 1976.

For Gulbenkian as a collector see

• Azeredo Perdigão, José, de, Calouste Gulbenkian, Collector, Lisbon: Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, n.d. [c. 1981]

[edit] References

• "Calouste Gulbenkian Dies at 86; One of the Richest Men in the World: Oil Financier, Art Collector Lived in Obscurity, Drove in Rented Automobile". The New York Times. July 21, 1955, p. 23. (Accessed via ProQuest Historic Newspapers, New York Times (1857-Current file), Document ID 83363695).
• "Gulbenkian's Will Sets Up Foundation". The New York Times. July 23, 1955, p. 5. (Access via ProQuest Historical Newspapers, New York times (1857-Current file), Document ID 84151580).

[edit] External links

• Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation
• Armenian General Benevolent Union

Persondata
NAME	Calouste Gulbenkian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, Mr. Five Percent
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Businessman and Philanthropist.
DATE OF BIRTH	Mar. 23, 1869
PLACE OF BIRTH	Scutari, Turkey
DATE OF DEATH	Jul. 20, 1955
PLACE OF DEATH	Lisbon, Portugal