ONE OF YEREVAN SCHOOLS TO BE NAMED AFTER ARMENIAN BENEFACTOR GALUST GULBENKIAN

/PanARMENIAN.Net/
13.10.2009 17:28 GMT+04:00

/PanARMENIAN.Net/ As a part of the "Our great" program one of Yerevan
schools will be named after the Armenian benefactor, the largest oil
tycoon of mid XX century Galust Gulbenkian in 2010, RA Minister of
Diaspora Hranush Hakobyan said during the meeting with the delegation
of the "Galust Gulbenkian" Foundation.

According to the minister, a documentary film about the life
of Gulbenkian is to be shot, it will be aired on Armenian Public
Television. Schools in Armenia will give introductory lectures devoted
to the life of Galust Gulbenkian.

Galust Gulbenkian was an English businessman and a millionaire
of Armenian origin, the largest oil tycoon of mid XX century and
philanthropist. He was born March 23, 1869, in Istanbul (Turkey). At
the beginning of XX century he was actively involved in organization
of world oil production, helping the largest companies in the world
to optimize production.

In 1907, the result of his work was a merger of the Danish and British
oil companies into Royal Dutch Shell, for that work Galust Gulbenkian
received a 5 per cent stake in the new company. Later Gulbenkian
participated in the creation of other oil companies (Turkish Petroleum
Company, Iraq Petroleum Company …), always receiving a 5% reward in
new companies, for which he earned the nickname "Mr. 5 per cent". He
founded the Gulbenkian Foundation in Lisbon.

In 1922 he built the Church of St. Sarkis in London. In 1929, he
restored the church of the Holy Sepulcher, and gave a significant
part of ancient Armenian art works from private collections to
the Patriarchate. In 1932 he donated 4000 pounds sterling for the
construction of the Armenian church and school in Tripoli (Libya).

In late 1920th , when the Soviet Government, experiencing deficit
in foreign currency, decided to fill the budget by selling out the
museum collections, the first buyer of the Hermitage’s masterpieces
was Galust Gulbenkian.

Gulbenkian w the biggest holder of the world’s largest private
numismatic collections. Galust Gulbenkian died July 20, 1955 in Lisbon
(Portugal).