Roy Neuberger American financier, founder of Neuberger Berman Date of Birth: 21.07.1903 Country: USA

Biography of Roy Neuberger

Roy Rothschild Neuberger, an American financier, was born in 1903 in Bridgeport, Connecticut, USA. He was the third child in a fairly wealthy Jewish family, but became an orphan at the age of 12. Neuberger spent his childhood in New York, where his main interests in middle school were tennis and girls. He attended New York University but did not obtain a degree due to his uneven academic performance. He then worked for B. Altman and Company in Manhattan, where he learned the basics of business and developed a passion for art, particularly paintings.

Neuberger traveled to Europe after inheriting a family fortune and lived in Paris for some time. He led a bohemian lifestyle, frequently visiting the Louvre and befriending renowned art historian Meyer Schapiro. It was during this period that Neuberger decided to dedicate himself to art and supporting talented but impoverished artists. He began collecting artworks, with a particular interest in contemporary artists. His collection eventually included works by Jackson Pollock, Ben Shahn, Stuart Davis, Edward Hopper, and Milton Avery.

Upon returning to the United States on the eve of the Great Depression, Neuberger started working at the Halle & Stieglitz gallery on Wall Street. In 1939, he co-founded the company Neuberger Berman with Robert Berman, while also making significant acquisitions for his art collection, which eventually grew to include several hundred works. Neuberger firmly believed that the main purpose of collecting art was not only to acquire the artworks but also to make them accessible to the public, thus popularizing contemporary art.

In 2007, Neuberger was awarded the National Medal of Arts by President George W. Bush for his contribution to culture. Today, artworks from Neuberger's collection can be seen in 70 cultural institutions across 24 states in the US, including the Museum of Modern Art and the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City. Neuberger was married to Marie Salant Neuberger, who shared his love for art. They had three children and numerous grandchildren.

Neuberger published his memoir, "So Far, So Good - the First 94 Years," in 1997. His life and the creation of his collection were also the subject of the book "The Passionate Collector: Eighty Years in the World of Art," co-authored by Alfred Connable and Roma Connable. Neuberger passed away on December 24, 2010, at the age of 107.

As a generous philanthropist, Neuberger always viewed art not only as an investment but also as something that could be made accessible to others. He left behind one of the largest art collections in the United States.