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<p>[QUOTE=&quot;Luis, post: 787174, member: 17336&quot;]I visited the Calouste Gulbenkian museum (Lisbon, Portugal) over the winter break. While the man wasn&#039;t a coin collector by any means, there were a few dozen of ancient coins (mostly silver and gold if I&#039;m not mistaken). Here are some of my favorites. The pictures are bad because I had a point and shoot and there was a thick glass in front of it.</p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://img341.imageshack.us/img341/5746/img2300l.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><img src="http://img686.imageshack.us/img686/766/img2303k.jpg" class="bbCodeImage wysiwygImage" alt="" unselectable="on" /></p><p><br /></p><p><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calouste_Gulbenkian" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calouste_Gulbenkian" rel="nofollow">Calouste Gulbenkian</a> in Wikipedia:</p><p><br /></p><p>By the end of his life he had become one of the world&#039;s wealthiest individuals and his art acquisitions considered one of the greatest private collections.</p><p><br /></p><p>At the time of his death in 1955, Gulbenkian&#039;s worth was estimated at between US$280 million and US$840 million. After undisclosed sums willed in trust to his descendants, the remainder of his fortune and art collection were willed to the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calouste_Gulbenkian_Foundation" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calouste_Gulbenkian_Foundation" rel="nofollow">Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation</a> (<i>Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian</i>), with US$300,000–400,000 to be reserved to restore the Echmiadzin Cathedral in <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echmiadzin" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echmiadzin" rel="nofollow">Echmiadzin, Armenia</a>, when relations with the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soviet_Union" rel="nofollow">Soviet Union</a> permitted. The Foundation was to act for charitable, educational, artistic, and scientific purposes, and the named trustees were his long-time friend Baron Radcliffe of Werneth, Lisbon attorney José de Azeredo Perdigão, and his son-in-law Kevork Loris Essayan. The Foundation established the <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calouste_Gulbenkian_Museum" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calouste_Gulbenkian_Museum" rel="nofollow">Calouste Gulbenkian Museum</a> (<i><a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museu_Calouste_Gulbenkian" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Museu_Calouste_Gulbenkian" rel="nofollow">Museu Calouste Gulbenkian</a></i>) in Lisbon to display his art collection.<a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calouste_Gulbenkian#cite_note-0" target="_blank" class="externalLink ProxyLink" data-proxy-href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Calouste_Gulbenkian#cite_note-0" rel="nofollow"></a>[/QUOTE]</p><p><br /></p>

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