- Peter Palumbo, Baron Palumbo
Peter Garth Palumbo, Baron Palumbo (born
20 July 1935 ) is aproperty developer , art collector and architecture connoisseur.Biography
Palumbo is the son of Rudolph Palumbo and his wife Elsie. Rudolph, who left school aged 12, himself became a wealthy property developer before
World War II . He went toEton College andWorcester College, Oxford , whence he received an M.A. inlaw . He married Denia Wigram in 1959 and they had one son and two daughters; after she died in 1986 he married Hayat Mroue (daughter of a Lebanese newspaper publisher) with whom he had another son and two daughters. His son from the first marriage, James "Jamie" Palumbo owns theMinistry of Sound nightclub and record label and is also a property developer. Jamie, who theSunday Times Rich List 2004 estimates has a net worth of £136m, is a noted backer of the Labour Party (whereas Peter Palumbo is a Conservative Party peer). In 1995 Peter Palumbo was sued by Jamie on the grounds that he had been abusing the family trust fund to pay for artwork purchases.In 1972 he bought the
Farnsworth House , designed byMies van der Rohe , to which Palumbo added the designer's furniture. He also expanded the grounds of the house by purchasing adjacent properties, and commissioned noted sculptors includingAnthony Caro andRichard Serra to provide artworks for the grounds. Palumbo sold the property to a group of Mies conservationists in 2003 for a reported $7.5 million. Palumbo also ownsKentuck Knob [http://www.watsonschoice.com/GuideBook/DayTrips/Attractions/KentuckKnob.htm] , a private house built byFrank Lloyd Wright in the mountains just east ofPittsburgh, Pennsylvania , andLe Corbusier 'sMaisons Jaoul inNeuilly-sur-Seine nearParis .Palumbo was a trustee of the
Tate Gallery from 1978 until 1985, and chairman of the gallery's foundation between 1986 and 1987. He formerly served as a trustee for theWhitechapel Art Gallery , and is currently a trustee of theNatural History Museum and is the chairman of theSerpentine Gallery 's board of trustees. He was Chairman of theArts Council of Great Britain from 1988 until 1993, proposing that the Council sell off its art collection to settle the debts of theRoyal Opera House and pay for its refurbishment. He was the former Chancellor of theUniversity of Portsmouth and the Chairman of the Friends ofHighgate Cemetery .In 1994 Palumbo demolished the "Mappin & Webb" building in London and replaced it with
No 1 Poultry , which provoked heated debate at the time.Palumbo led the effort to repair
St Stephen Walbrook church in central London, a 17th century building by SirChristopher Wren which had been badly damaged duringThe Blitz . He also commissioned sculptorHenry Moore to build a white stone altar for the church (a controversial choice; critics described Moore's undulating white altar as being like "ripe camembert cheese"). The church, of which Palumbo's first wife waschurchwarden , also contains a modern sundial on a black plinth; the plinth (which is inscribed "I count only the sunny hours") is Palumbo's memorial to Denia.He was created a
life peer on4 February 1991 as Baron Palumbo of Walbrook in the City of London, after the neighbourhood around St Stephen Walbrook.Royal Connections
Palumbo was a
polo teammate ofPrince Charles and the two were close until 1984 when the Prince publicly criticised Palumbo's plan to build an unrealised design byMies van der Rohe nearSt.Paul's Cathedral that Charles described as "a glass stump". In the "War of the Waleses " Palumbo allied himself withPrincess Diana helping to organise support during the divorce and in 1994 used a fundraising event at the Serpentine Gallery for Diana to make a public appearance on the same night that a sympathetic interview with Charles was to be screened on the BBC.External links
* [http://www.geocities.com/londondestruction/mappin.html Mappin and Webb building at Bank - destroyed 1994]
* [http://195.38.64.125/POLITICS2/BIOG/ld_BIOGS/bio.asp?id=1851 Lord Palumbo's entry from Dod's Political Publishing]
* [http://www.nhm.ac.uk/info/trustees/p_palumbo.html Trustee of various museums and galleries including Natural History Museum]
* [http://www.shareholder.com/bid/news/20031006-119309.cfm Farnsworth House]
* [http://www.antiquesandthearts.com/CS-2004-08-10-12-04-51p2.htm More on the Farnsworth House]
* [http://www.touruk.co.uk/london_churches/ststephen_church1.htm Restoration of St. Stephen Walbrook church]
* [http://www.nal.vam.ac.uk/acgb/acgb-45.html Chairman of the Arts Council of Great Britain, 1988/89]
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