On Wednesday, the Greek Minister of Culture and Sports, Lina Mendoni, met with Ariana Rockefeller, the granddaughter of the philanthropist, David Rockefeller Sr.
The Rockefeller family relationship with Greece goes back decades. John D. Rockefeller Jr., David’s father, appreciated and adored antiquity and the history of ancient Athens, Pericles and the creation of the Acropolis. David Rockefeller maintained his family’s love for Greece and ancient Greek Culture by visiting Mount Athos.
In addition, the Rockefeller Foundation funded excavations in Ancient Agora in the 1930s. In 1929, the Foundation provided the capital to complete the construction of the Museum of Ancient Agora along with scholarships to train archaeologists.
For their meeting, Rockefeller gifted the Minister of Culture and Sports with her grandfather’s memoir along with a copy of the record of the donation from the Rockefeller Foundation in 1949. This bequest gave $150,000 to the American School of Classical Studies to continue their work excavating Ancient Agora. The original document lives in the archives of the Rockefeller Foundation in New York.
Rockefeller assured the Minister that she would continue the Rockefeller legacy with her continued involvement in Greek issues as a representative of the Rockefeller Foundation.
Sourced from Cision PR Newswire.