Shelby White (born 1938) is an American investor, art collector, and philanthropist. She serves on the board of 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 ...

and is a founding trustee of the Leon Levy Foundation.

Early life

Shelby Ann Baier was born in 1938 and grew up in

Brooklyn Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

. She received a bachelor's degree from

Mount Holyoke College Mount Holyoke College is a Private college, private Women's colleges in the United States, women's Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in South Hadley, Massachusetts, United States. It is the oldest member of the h ...

and a master's from

Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...

. After college, she married investment banker Rodney L. White, who died in 1969. In the 1970s, White married

Leon Levy Leon Levy (September 13, 1925 – April 6, 2003)
April 8, 2003. was an American investor,

Career

White began her career as an author and financial journalist and wrote for publications including ''Forbes, Town and Country'' and ''The New York Times.'' In 1992, White published the book ''What Every Woman Should Know About Her Husband’s Money.'' Her March 1978 article, “''The Office Pass,”'' in Across the Board magazine was among the first on the topic of sexual harassment in the workplace. Over the next several decades, White and Levy accumulated a substantial collection of objects from different time periods and international origins. Many of the pieces in their collection are on display at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. In the early 1990s, White and Levy gave 16 artifacts to the

British Museum The British Museum is a Museum, public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is the largest in the world. It documents the story of human cu ...

after having been shown evidence that the objects may have been surreptitiously removed from Roman ruins in Icklingham, England. In 2008, White returned 9 pieces that the Italian government suggested had been questionably exported. The Levy-White collection has been scrutinized for looted objects: in a 2000 article, archaeologists David Gill and

Christopher Chippindale Christopher Ralph Chippindale, FSA (born 13 October 1951) is a British archaeologist. He worked at the Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology from 1988 to his retirement in 2013, and was additionally Reader in Archaeology at the University of ...

stated that 93 percent of the works at the exhibition ''Glories of the Past: Ancient Art from the Shelby White and Leon Levy Collection'' had no known provenance. Upon search warrants issued by the

Manhattan District Attorney The New York County District Attorney, also known as the Manhattan District Attorney, is the elected district attorney for New York County, New York. The office is responsible for the prosecution of violations of New York state laws (federal la ...

’s Office on 28 June 2021, and April 27, 2022, objects were seized from White's Manhattan home and were returned to Turkey and Italy, these objects constituting "evidence of criminal possession of stolen property in the first, second, third, and fourth degrees, as well as of a conspiracy to commit those crimes" In 2021 and 2022, investigators from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s office returned 71 artifacts from the Levy-White collection to multiple countries, including Yemen, Turkey and Italy. The Office of Manhattan District Attorney General seized 89 stolen antiquities, valued at $69 million and originating from 10 different countries, and returned some of them to

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

and

Yemen Yemen, officially the Republic of Yemen, is a country in West Asia. Located in South Arabia, southern Arabia, it borders Saudi Arabia to Saudi Arabia–Yemen border, the north, Oman to Oman–Yemen border, the northeast, the south-eastern part ...

. In May 2023, Chinese antiquities loaned to the Metropolitan Museum of Art by Shelby White were seized and returned to the Chinese Consulate, and an alabaster bull looted from Uruk was returned to

Iraq Iraq, officially the Republic of Iraq, is a country in West Asia. It is bordered by Saudi Arabia to Iraq–Saudi Arabia border, the south, Turkey to Iraq–Turkey border, the north, Iran to Iran–Iraq border, the east, the Persian Gulf and ...

. In March, Bragg’s office “thank(ed) Shelby White for her assistance and cooperation with our investigation.” In 1995, White and her husband made a donation of $20 million for the renovation and expansion of the Met's Greek and Roman Galleries; the Met’s largest cash donation up to that time. Philippe de Montebello, the Met’s director, said the gift “moves us significantly toward finally making the broad spectrum of our Greek and Roman holdings accessible to all visitors.” In 2000, White was appointed to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee, a government organization formed in 1983 to help combat illicit international trade of antiquities. After her husband's death in 2003, White established the Leon Levy Foundation,which has awarded more than half a billion dollars in total grants since its founding. Through the Foundation, White has funded her philanthropic efforts including a $25 million donation to New York City parks in 2008; $3.25 million for an addition to the

Brooklyn Public Library The Brooklyn Public Library is the public library system of the New York City borough of Brooklyn. It is the sixteenth largest public library system in the United States by holding and the seventh by number of visitors. Like the two Brooklyn Publ ...

in 2010; more than $10 million since 2007 to nearly two dozen institutions from the National Park Service to the New York Philharmonic to identify, preserve and digitize archival collections so that they are available online to scholars and the public; $13.5 million in 2011 for the founding , in partnership with the Bahamas National Trust, of the 30-acre Leon Levy Native Plant Preserve on the Island of Eleuthera; $3.7 million in 2007 for the creation of the Leon Levy Center for Biography at the CUNY Graduate Center, which the foundation further endowed with a $10 million gift in 2024; and $200 million to

NYU New York University (NYU) is a 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 non-denominational all-male institutio ...

in 2006 for the creation of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World for doctoral and post doctoral students that NYU President John Sexton said, would “chart a new course that will transform the way antiquity is conceived and taught, without geographic or cultural boundaries.” In 2017, White received the

Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy The Carnegie Medal of Philanthropy is a private award for philanthropy, bestowed every second year to multiple people by the Carnegie family of institutions. In recent years the medal has been presented in New York. About the Medal The Carnegie ...

, a private philanthropic award established in 2001. 12282022 WikiWednesday Salon December 2022 BPL Hybrid sign

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:White, Shelby Philanthropists from New York (state) 20th-century American philanthropists 1938 births Living people 21st-century American philanthropists Mount Holyoke College alumni