Bernard Gerald Cantor (December 17, 1916 – July 3, 1996) was the founder and chairman of

securities A security is a tradable financial asset. The term commonly refers to any form of financial instrument, but its legal definition varies by jurisdiction. In some countries and languages people commonly use the term "security" to refer to any for ...

firm Cantor Fitzgerald.

Career

Cantor's parents were Rose (née Delson) and Julius Cantor, Jewish immigrants from

Belarus Belarus, officially the Republic of Belarus, is a landlocked country in Eastern Europe. It is bordered by Russia to the east and northeast, Ukraine to the south, Poland to the west, and Lithuania and Latvia to the northwest. Belarus spans an a ...

. Born in

the Bronx The Bronx ( ) is the northernmost of the five Boroughs of New York City, boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Bronx County, in the U.S. state of New York (state), New York. It shares a land border with Westchester County, New York, West ...

on December 17, 1916, Cantor attended

DeWitt Clinton High School DeWitt Clinton High School is a public high school located since 1929 in the Bronx borough of New York City. Opened in 1897 in Lower Manhattan as an all-boys school, it maintained that status for 86 years before becoming co-ed in 1983. From i ...

. He and his first wife, Leona (deceased) had one son, Jay, who chose not to follow his father into the financial world. Cantor studied law and finance at

New York University New York University (NYU) is a private university, private research university in New York City, New York, United States. Chartered in 1831 by the New York State Legislature, NYU was founded in 1832 by Albert Gallatin as a Nondenominational ...

between 1935 and 1937 and soon afterwards became a securities analyst on Wall Street. After serving in the army in the South Pacific during the Second World War, he established B.G. Cantor and Company, which would later become Cantor FitzgeraldEdward Helmore (July 13, 1996)
Obituary: Gerald Cantor
''

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''. L.P., a New York City-based partnership that was among the biggest institutional brokers of Government securities in the United States. He stepped down in December 1995 because of declining health. He was also a co-owner of the

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of the

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for a time.Eric Pace (July 6, 1996)
B. Gerald Cantor, Philanthropist and Owner of Rodin Collection, Is Dead at 79
''

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''.

Art collection

After he married Iris Bazel in 1977 the couple became among the most important benefactors of fine art in New York through the founding of the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation. During his life, along with his wife, Cantor assembled the world's largest private collection of works by

Auguste Rodin François Auguste René Rodin (; ; 12 November 184017 November 1917) was a French sculptor generally considered the founder of modern sculpture. He was schooled traditionally and took a craftsman-like approach to his work. Rodin possessed a u ...

. Between 1981 and 1984, part of the Cantor Rodin collection was displayed in a private museum beside Cantor's 105th-floor offices in the World Trade Center. Much of the collection was donated to over 70 art institutions worldwide, such as the

Los Angeles County Museum of Art The Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA) is an art museum located on Wilshire Boulevard in the Miracle Mile vicinity of Los Angeles. LACMA is on Museum Row, adjacent to the La Brea Tar Pits (George C. Page Museum). LACMA was founded in 1961 ...

and the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Center for Visual Arts at

Stanford University Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a Private university, private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth ...

.Haven, Cynthia
"Passion for Rodin"
''Stanford Report'', February 18, 2009. Accessed October 3, 2009. From 1984 to 1987, the Cantors gave 58 Rodins and the money to install them in the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Gallery at the

Brooklyn Museum of Art The Brooklyn Museum is an art museum in the New York City borough (New York City), borough of Brooklyn. At , the museum is New York City's second largest and contains an art collection with around 500,000 objects. Located near the Prospect Heig ...

. The Cantors underwrote many art exhibitions and endowed galleries at the

Metropolitan Museum of Art The Metropolitan Museum of Art, colloquially referred to as the Met, is an Encyclopedic museum, encyclopedic art museum in New York City. By floor area, it is the List of largest museums, third-largest museum in the world and the List of larg ...

, including the popular Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Roof Garden, as well as a sculpture garden and his namesake museum at Stanford. According to the foundation, the total number of Rodin sculptures in the private Cantor collection was about 300, and that the total number of Rodin sculptures that had been given away by the Cantors or the foundation over the years was more than 450. The Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Foundation continues to underwrite exhibitions. In 1997, the

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, Morristown, showed "Focus on Rodin: Selections From the Iris and B. Gerald Cantor Collection". "Rodin at Rockefeller Center: Sculpture from the Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation" was mounted at the

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, New York, in 1998. Later, the exhibition "Rodin: A Magnificent Obsession" was organized and toured internationally by the foundation, travelling, among others, to

Louisiana State University Louisiana State University and Agricultural and Mechanical College, commonly referred to as Louisiana State University (LSU), is an American Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Baton Rouge, Louis ...

, Baton Rouge; Albany Institute of History & Art, Albany;

Albright-Knox Art Gallery The Buffalo AKG Art Museum, formerly known as the Albright–Knox Art Gallery, is an art museum located adjacent to Delaware Park, Buffalo, New York, United States. The museum shows modern art and contemporary art. It is directly opposite Buff ...

, Buffalo; and the

Vancouver Art Gallery The Vancouver Art Gallery (VAG) is an art museum in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The museum occupies a adjacent to Robson Square in downtown Vancouver, making it the largest art museum in Western Canada by building size. Designed by Fr ...

. Cantor was a trustee of the Metropolitan Museum from 1985 to 1990. In later years, he was an honorary trustee and a member of the visiting committee for the museum's department of European sculpture and decorative arts. He was also a life trustee of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art from 1972 to 1985 and subsequently an honorary trustee. Cantor was a patron of 20th Century Surrealist Raymond A. Whyte and had five of his works displayed in the Cantor-Fitzgerald offices during the September 11th terrorist attacks.

Philanthropy

Cantor has donated to the

College of the Holy Cross The College of the Holy Cross is a private Jesuit liberal arts college in Worcester, Massachusetts, United States. It was founded by educators Benedict Joseph Fenwick and Thomas F. Mulledy in 1843 under the auspices of the Society of Jesus. ...

in Worcester, Mass., the

UCLA Anderson School of Management The John E. Anderson Graduate School of Management (branded as UCLA Anderson) is the graduate business school at the University of California, Los Angeles. The school offers MBA (full-time, part-time, executive), Post Graduate Program for Executi ...

, and

Cornell University Cornell University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university based in Ithaca, New York, United States. The university was co-founded by American philanthropist Ezra Cornell and historian and educator Andrew Dickson W ...

. When the

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unveiled the redecorated

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in 1993, it displayed a bronze cast of Rodin's "Thinker," which President Clinton had personally arranged to borrow from the Cantor collection. The Cantors also financed a sculpture garden at the White House in 1994. In 1995, he and his wife were awarded the

National Medal of Arts The National Medal of Arts is an award and title created by the United States Congress in 1984, for the purpose of honoring artists and Patronage, patrons of the arts. A prestigious American honor, it is the highest honor given to artists and ar ...

.Lifetime Honors - National Medal of Arts

References

External links

from The Iris & B. Gerald Cantor Foundation
BGCpartners.com: B. Gerald Cantor Partners history

The Metropolitan Museum of Art.org: "Rodin: The B. Gerald Cantor Collection"
— ''exhibition catalog, full text''. {{DEFAULTSORT:Cantor, B. Gerald American financial company founders American investment bankers American art collectors Philanthropists from New York (state) 1916 births 1996 deaths United States National Medal of Arts recipients Businesspeople from Los Angeles Philanthropists from California DeWitt Clinton High School alumni New York University School of Law alumni New York University Stern School of Business alumni American people of Belarusian-Jewish descent People from Bel Air, Los Angeles Businesspeople from the Bronx United States Army personnel of World War II 20th-century American businesspeople Military personnel from New York City Cantor Fitzgerald people Kansas City Kings owners