By 1800 the Gulbenkians had settled in Talas near Caesarea (today’s Kayseri), where they generously funded the construction of Armenian schools and a new Armenian church. These are the earliest recorded examples of a long tradition of Armenian philanthropy which continued into the twentieth century.

Calouste’s father and uncle moved to what was then Constantinople around 1850, and soon added the city’s S. Pirgiç hospital to the family’s philanthropies. An 1881 trade directory lists “S. and S. Gulbenkian” as both an import/export house and a bank. Along with carpets, wool and other commodities the company traded in kerosene from the Caucasus. By 1892 S. and S. Gulbenkian formed one of a network of family-based trading partnerships based in London, Marseilles, Varna (Bulgaria) and in other cities across the Ottoman Empire.

Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian started his studies in Kadikoy (Calcedonia), at the Aramyan-Uncuyan school. At the age of 14 he was sent to study in Marseille, where he perfected his French, and then to London, where he attended King’s College School. He soon moved on to King’s College London’s Department of Applied Sciences, where he studied a range of subjects, excelling in Physics. He became an Associate of King’s College in 1887. Although he considered doing further research in Paris, he was dissuaded by his father.

In 1888 Calouste Gulbenkian travelled to Baku to learn more about the oil business and to complete his education. This journey led him to write a travelogue entitled “La Transcaucasie et la Péninsule d’Apchéron – Souvenirs de Voyage” as well as articles for La Revue des Deux Mondes and other French periodicals. These publications established his reputation as an oil expert, capturing the attention of the Ottoman Ministry of the Civil List, who asked Gulbenkian to draw up a report on the oil-rich lands which the Sultan had acquired in Al Jazeera (modern-day Iraq).

In 1892 Gulbenkian married Nevarte Essayan in London. The couple had two children: a son, Nubar (born 1896), and a daughter, Rita (born 1900). The Essayans originally hailed from Caesarea and had privileged access to the Ottoman court. But the good connections with the Ottoman court were not enough to protect Gulbenkian and his family from anti-Armenian pogroms. In 1896 the storming of the Imperial Ottoman Bank office in Constantinople by Armenian activists triggered a wave of coordinated attacks aimed at the city’s Armenian community. Fortunately for Gulbenkian, his wife’s family included a ferry line among their business interests and the family was able to escape by steamship to Alexandria.

Gulbenkian settled on Portugal because of its geographical situation: if necessary he could escape by sea to the United States. He remained until his death; perhaps because of the stable society, the low taxes, and the absence of a prying media. In Lisbon he felt welcome – he wrote later “that he had never felt anywhere else” such hospitality as in Lisbon, a quiet city in a Europe devastated by war.

He lived at the Hotel Aviz, Lisbon, for thirteen years and died in Lisbon on 20 July 1955, aged 86. His will (18 June 1953) left generous legacies to his children and established lifetime pensions for other relatives and retainers. He created an international foundation that would bear his name, inherit the rest of his fortune, and be presided over by his trusted lawyer, Lord Radcliffe. To him he entrusted the mission to act so as to benefit “humanity”. He also wanted his Foundation to reflect what he considered his major achievements: his art collection and his role as a “business architect”, conceiving structures to bring together and unite different nations, groups and interests.

After his death, arduous negotiations with the French and Portuguese governments ensued, to establish the terms under which Gulbenkian’s art collection would be allowed to leave France, as well as the legal basis for the foundation. In 1960, the entire collection was brought to Portugal, where it was exhibited at the Pombal Palace in Oeiras from 1965 to 1969. Fourteen years after the death of this illustrious collector his wish was fulfilled, when the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum opened in Lisbon.

However differences of opinion concerning the weight of the international activities to be carried out by the Foundation, the composition of its Board of Trustees (the Government insisted on a majority of Portuguese members), and the fear of government interference led Lord Radcliffe to resign. Thus José Azeredo Perdigão became the first President of the Foundation.

Presently the Foundation – one of the largest foundations in Europe – is trying to act more internationally, partly to tackle the major issues facing society but also to honour the Founder’s wishes. The Foundation is active in collaborating with other Foundations on international issues.

The definitive biography of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian is being prepared by historian Dr Jonathan Conlin (University of Southampton) and will be published in time for the 150th anniversary of Calouste Gulbenkian’s birth in 2019.

His persistence, business talent, and flexibility to accommodate new interests and adapt to new situations earned him considerable respect among industry insiders. Titans of the oil industry all recognized Gulbenkian’s probity and straight-dealing. The rest of the world knew him simply as Mr. Five Percent, one of the world’s richest men.

Calouste Gulbenkian’s collection of paintings includes works by Bouts, Van de Weyden, Lochner, Cima de Conegliano, Carpaccio, Rubens, Van Dyck, Hals, Rembrandt, Guardi, Gainsborough, Romney, Lawrence, Fragonard, Corot, Renoir, Nattier, Boucher, Manet, Degas and Monet. A favourite sculpture was Houdon’s famous Diana, which had belonged to Catherine of Russia and which Gulbenkian purchased from the Hermitage Museum in 1930.

Fiercely protective of his “children”‘s welfare, Gulbenkian could also be extraordinarily generous in lending and donating works from his collection to public museums around the world. In 1936, his collection of Egyptian antiquities was entrusted to the care of the British Museum, while the finest paintings went on loan to the National Gallery. Later, in 1948 and 1950, the same works would be sent on to the National Gallery of Art in Washington.

As his collection expanded and as he grew older, Gulbenkian became ever more concerned about how to preserve his achievement, and also how to avoid paying taxes on his legacy. In 1937 he started discussions with one of his art advisors, Kenneth Clark, about a “Gulbenkian Institute” to be built next to the National Gallery in London. He was declared an “enemy” by the British Government during the Second World War because he had followed the French Government to Vichy as a member of the Persian diplomatic delegation. The British temporarily sequestered his share of the Iraq Petroleum Company (as TPC was now known). Although both steps were regulations of a kind imposed by all countries during wartime Gulbenkian chose to take them as personal slights. He began looking elsewhere for a permanent home for his art collection and the international foundation he planned to endow. He considered the National Gallery of Art in Washington as a potential home for his collection, working closely with its director, John Walker.

At the time of his death in 1955 Gulbenkian does not appear to have decided where he wanted his collection to be housed and simply left it his trusted advisor, Cyril Radcliffe to take such decisions as he saw fit. One thing was clear: Gulbenkian wanted his collection of antiquities, sculpture, painting and furniture displayed together under one roof, rather than scattered across the galleries of a larger museum.

Established in 1956 as a Portuguese foundation for the whole of humanity, the Foundation’s original purpose focused on fostering knowledge and raising the quality of life of persons throughout the fields of the arts, charity, science and education. Bequeathed by the last will and testament of Calouste Sarkis Gulbenkian, the Foundation is of perpetual duration and undertakes its activities structured around its headquarters in Lisbon (Portugal) and its delegations in Paris (France) and London (the United Kingdom).

The first circuit highlights Oriental and Classical Art on display in the Egyptian, Greco-Roman, Mesopotamian, Eastern Islamic, Armenian and Far Eastern Art.

The second covers European Art with sections dedicated to the Art of the Book, Sculpture, Painting and the Decorative Arts particularly 18th century French art and the work of René Lalique.

In this circuit a wide-ranging number of pieces reflect various European artistic trends from the beginning of the 11th century to the mid-20th century.

The section begins with work in ivory and illuminated manuscript books, followed by a selection of 15th, 16th and 17th century sculptures and paintings.

Renaissance art produced in Flanders, France and Italy is on display in the next room. French 18th century decorative arts have a special place in the museum with outstanding gold and silver objects and furniture, as well as paintings and sculptures. These decorative arts are followed by galleries exhibiting a group of paintings by the Venetian Francesco Guardi, 18th and 19th century English paintings, and finally a superb collection of jewels and glass by René Lalique, displayed in its own room.