Leon Levy
Encyclopedia
Leon Levy was, according to Forbes magazine, a "Wall Street investment genius and prolific philanthropist," who helped create both mutual funds and hedge funds. He co-founded the mutual fund
manager Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.
in 1959. There he started dozens of mutual funds that, at his death, had grown to manage more than $120 billion. In 1982 he sold Oppenheimer to the U.K.'s Mercantile House for $162 million and co-founded Odyssey Partners, a private investment partnership. It grew to be a $3 billion hedge fund before it was dissolved in 1997.
Levy's financial philosophy stressed common sense and the psychology of investors. He studied at Townsend Harris High School
and was strongly influenced by his father, a well-known economist and business executive who taught him the role corporate profits play in charting the economy's direction. To honor his father, he founded the Jerome Levy Economics Institute at Bard College.
When he died in his late seventies, he was estimated to be worth a billion dollars, though his personal wealth might have been substantially higher were it not for his philanthropic interests. In the last year of his life, Levy commuted up the Hudson River from New York City to teach a class at Bard College, Contemporary Developments of Finance, in which he focused on his belief that investing is as much a psychological as it is an economic act.
for the construction of the new Leon Levy and Shelby White Court, a gallery hosting the largest selection of Hellenistic and Roman
artwork ever exhibited at that museum. When completed, the gallery will host a number of pieces from Levy and White's substantial art collection, which also includes art from the Near East. Since 1997, they have also given more than $6 million to 133 scholars for the publication of archaeological excavations that had previously been completed but never published. The projects funded by their program, the Shelby White-Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications, include excavations at some of the highest profile archaeological sites throughout Greece and the Middle East, including Knossos
, Aphrodisias
, Kition, Ras Shamra, Sarepta
, Mt. Gerizim, Ekron
, Lachish
, Megiddo, Jerusalem, Pella
, Jerash
, the Dead Sea Plains
, Assur
, Nineveh
, Nuzi
, and Tepe Hissar
. They have also been generous benefactors to Christ's College, Cambridge
, the New York Botanical Garden, Rockefeller University, and the Institute for Advanced Study, among many other organizations.
As mentioned, Levy founded the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College in 1986 as a tribute to his father. He contributed to its development over the years and served as chairman of the Institute's Board of Governors.
He was the life trustee and leading donor to Bard College.
In spring, 2006, the Leon Levy Foundation pledged $200 million to New York University for the creation of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. The Institute is supposed to be an interdisciplinary research center of the ancient world, where the first full class of graduate students was expected to enter in the fall of 2008. The donation created controversy among some academics, causing the resignation from NYU’s Center for Ancient Studies—which is not affiliated with the new institute—of NYU professor Randall White, who was concerned about ethical problems in receiving donation from a foundation whose benefactor has sometimes been associated with questionable practices in antiquities collection and trafficking. Several scholars outside NYU, especially from Bryn Mawr College, University of Pennsylvania and University of Cincinnati, also commented negatively about NYU's acceptance of the gift. The recent publication by Peter Watson and Cecelia Todeschini, entitled The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities--From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums (2006) lays out the dynamics of illegal trade in antiquities
, where Leon Levy and Shelby White appear as practitioners of unethical practices in collecting antiquities.
However, some scholars support the foundation and the institute. Professor James McCredie, of the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU's graduate teaching and advanced research center for art history, wrote a letter to Provost David McLaughlin endorsing the project. It was signed by IFA's seven professors of ancient art and architecture.
Mutual fund
A mutual fund is a professionally managed type of collective investment scheme that pools money from many investors to buy stocks, bonds, short-term money market instruments, and/or other securities.- Overview :...
manager Oppenheimer & Co. Inc.
Oppenheimer Holdings
Oppenheimer Holdings is an investment bank and full-service investment firm offering investment banking, financial advisory services, capital markets services, asset management, wealth management, and related products and services worldwide...
in 1959. There he started dozens of mutual funds that, at his death, had grown to manage more than $120 billion. In 1982 he sold Oppenheimer to the U.K.'s Mercantile House for $162 million and co-founded Odyssey Partners, a private investment partnership. It grew to be a $3 billion hedge fund before it was dissolved in 1997.
Levy's financial philosophy stressed common sense and the psychology of investors. He studied at Townsend Harris High School
Townsend Harris High School
Townsend Harris High School is a public magnet high school for the humanities in the borough of Queens in New York City. Students and alumni often refer to themselves as "Harrisites." Townsend Harris consistently ranks as among the top 100 High Schools in the United States. It currently operates as...
and was strongly influenced by his father, a well-known economist and business executive who taught him the role corporate profits play in charting the economy's direction. To honor his father, he founded the Jerome Levy Economics Institute at Bard College.
When he died in his late seventies, he was estimated to be worth a billion dollars, though his personal wealth might have been substantially higher were it not for his philanthropic interests. In the last year of his life, Levy commuted up the Hudson River from New York City to teach a class at Bard College, Contemporary Developments of Finance, in which he focused on his belief that investing is as much a psychological as it is an economic act.
Philanthropy
Levy's philanthropy began in the 1950s, when he established the Jerome Levy Foundation. Levy and his wife Shelby White grew to be well known for their philanthropic efforts, which amounted to more than $200 million before his death. They donated $20 million to the Metropolitan Museum of ArtMetropolitan Museum of Art
The Metropolitan Museum of Art is a renowned art museum in New York City. Its permanent collection contains more than two million works, divided into nineteen curatorial departments. The main building, located on the eastern edge of Central Park along Manhattan's Museum Mile, is one of the...
for the construction of the new Leon Levy and Shelby White Court, a gallery hosting the largest selection of Hellenistic and Roman
Ancient Rome
Ancient Rome was a thriving civilization that grew on the Italian Peninsula as early as the 8th century BC. Located along the Mediterranean Sea and centered on the city of Rome, it expanded to one of the largest empires in the ancient world....
artwork ever exhibited at that museum. When completed, the gallery will host a number of pieces from Levy and White's substantial art collection, which also includes art from the Near East. Since 1997, they have also given more than $6 million to 133 scholars for the publication of archaeological excavations that had previously been completed but never published. The projects funded by their program, the Shelby White-Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications, include excavations at some of the highest profile archaeological sites throughout Greece and the Middle East, including Knossos
Knossos
Knossos , also known as Labyrinth, or Knossos Palace, is the largest Bronze Age archaeological site on Crete and probably the ceremonial and political centre of the Minoan civilization and culture. The palace appears as a maze of workrooms, living spaces, and store rooms close to a central square...
, Aphrodisias
Aphrodisias
Aphrodisias was a small city in Caria, on the southwest coast of Asia Minor. Its site is located near the modern village of Geyre, Turkey, about 230 km from İzmir....
, Kition, Ras Shamra, Sarepta
Sarepta
Sarepta was a Phoenician city on the Mediterranean coast between Sidon and Tyre. Most of the objects by which we characterise Phoenician culture are those that have been recovered scattered among Phoenician colonies and trading posts; such carefully excavated colonial sites are in Spain, Sicily,...
, Mt. Gerizim, Ekron
Ekron
The city of Ekron , was one of the five cities of the famed Philistine pentapolis, located in southwestern Canaan. Ekron lies 35 kilometers west of Jerusalem, and 18 kilometers north of ancient Gath, on the eastern edge of Israel's coastal plain.-History:...
, Lachish
Lachish
Lachish was an ancient Near East town located at the site of modern Tell ed-Duweir in the Shephelah, a region between Mount Hebron and the maritime plain of Philistia . The town was first mentioned in the Amarna letters as Lakisha-Lakiša...
, Megiddo, Jerusalem, Pella
Pella
Pella , an ancient Greek city located in Pella Prefecture of Macedonia in Greece, was the capital of the ancient kingdom of Macedonia.-Etymology:...
, Jerash
Jerash
Jerash, the Gerasa of Antiquity, is the capital and largest city of Jerash Governorate , which is situated in the north of Jordan, north of the capital Amman towards Syria...
, the Dead Sea Plains
Dead Sea
The Dead Sea , also called the Salt Sea, is a salt lake bordering Jordan to the east and Israel and the West Bank to the west. Its surface and shores are below sea level, the lowest elevation on the Earth's surface. The Dead Sea is deep, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world...
, Assur
Assur
Assur , was one of the capitals of ancient Assyria. The remains of the city are situated on the western bank of river Tigris, north of the confluence with the tributary Little Zab river, in modern day Iraq, more precisely in the Al-Shirqat District .Assur is also...
, Nineveh
Nineveh
Nineveh was an ancient Assyrian city on the eastern bank of the Tigris River, and capital of the Neo Assyrian Empire. Its ruins are across the river from the modern-day major city of Mosul, in the Ninawa Governorate of Iraq....
, Nuzi
Nuzi
Nuzi was an ancient Mesopotamian city southwest of Kirkuk in modern Al Ta'amim Governorate of Iraq, located near the Tigris river...
, and Tepe Hissar
Tepe Hissar
Tepe Hissar is a the site of an ancient settlement near Damghan in north-eastern Iran. The site was investigated around In 1931 and 1932, excavations were undertaken by the University of Pennsylvania Museum....
. They have also been generous benefactors to Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College, Cambridge
Christ's College is a constituent college of the University of Cambridge.With a reputation for high academic standards, Christ's College averaged top place in the Tompkins Table from 1980-2000 . In 2011, Christ's was placed sixth.-College history:...
, the New York Botanical Garden, Rockefeller University, and the Institute for Advanced Study, among many other organizations.
As mentioned, Levy founded the Levy Economics Institute of Bard College in 1986 as a tribute to his father. He contributed to its development over the years and served as chairman of the Institute's Board of Governors.
He was the life trustee and leading donor to Bard College.
Foundation and controversy
The Leon Levy Foundation, created from Levy's estate in 2004, established the Philip J. King Professorship at Harvard University to support a scholar who will use an interdisciplinary approach to advance the understanding of ancient civilizations in the Near East and the Mediterranean.In spring, 2006, the Leon Levy Foundation pledged $200 million to New York University for the creation of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World. The Institute is supposed to be an interdisciplinary research center of the ancient world, where the first full class of graduate students was expected to enter in the fall of 2008. The donation created controversy among some academics, causing the resignation from NYU’s Center for Ancient Studies—which is not affiliated with the new institute—of NYU professor Randall White, who was concerned about ethical problems in receiving donation from a foundation whose benefactor has sometimes been associated with questionable practices in antiquities collection and trafficking. Several scholars outside NYU, especially from Bryn Mawr College, University of Pennsylvania and University of Cincinnati, also commented negatively about NYU's acceptance of the gift. The recent publication by Peter Watson and Cecelia Todeschini, entitled The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities--From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums (2006) lays out the dynamics of illegal trade in antiquities
Antiquities
Antiquities, nearly always used in the plural in this sense, is a term for objects from Antiquity, especially the civilizations of the Mediterranean: the Classical antiquity of Greece and Rome, Ancient Egypt and the other Ancient Near Eastern cultures...
, where Leon Levy and Shelby White appear as practitioners of unethical practices in collecting antiquities.
However, some scholars support the foundation and the institute. Professor James McCredie, of the Institute of Fine Arts, NYU's graduate teaching and advanced research center for art history, wrote a letter to Provost David McLaughlin endorsing the project. It was signed by IFA's seven professors of ancient art and architecture.