Calouste Gulbenkian

Lore & Background

Gulbenkian was born in Constantinople to a family long involved in the oil industry; his father Sarkis was an oil importer and exporter who owned fields in the Caucasus and supplied oil to the Ottoman Sultan. After early education in Constantinople and Marseille, he studied petroleum engineering at King's College London, graduating with a first-class degree in 1887 at age 18. He then traveled to Baku to study the Russian oil industry and later wrote an article about his travels that was published as a book in Paris in 1891.

In 1896, Gulbenkian and his family fled the Ottoman Empire due to the Hamidian massacres of Armenians, settling in Egypt where he met influential contacts. He moved to London in 1897, became a naturalized British citizen in 1902, and helped arrange the merger of Royal Dutch Petroleum with Shell in 1907, emerging as a major shareholder. He was the driving force behind the creation of the Turkish Petroleum Company in 1912, and after World War I and prolonged negotiations, the Red Line Agreement of 1928 reserved 5% of shares for him. The company was renamed the Iraq Petroleum Company in 1929.

Gulbenkian amassed a huge fortune and an art collection of over 6,400 pieces, kept at his Paris house. He commissioned more than 140 works from René Lalique alone. In 1938, he incorporated a Panamanian company to hold his oil assets, which later became Partex Oil and Gas, a subsidiary of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation.

Reader's Guide

Calouste Gulbenkian's significance lies in his pivotal role in opening Middle Eastern oil to Western development, particularly through the creation of the Turkish Petroleum Company and the Red Line Agreement, which shaped the region's petroleum industry for decades. His nickname 'Mr. Five Per Cent' reflects his strategy of retaining a small but consistent share in the companies he helped create, a model that made him enormously wealthy. His legacy extends beyond business: the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, established in 1956 by his bequest and based in Portugal, is now among the largest foundations in Europe, promoting arts, charity, education, and science worldwide. His art collection, one of the greatest private collections, includes objects from antiquity to the 20th century and is housed in museums in Lisbon and elsewhere. Gulbenkian's life also illustrates the diaspora experience of Armenians in the late Ottoman Empire, as he fled the Hamidian massacres and later became a British citizen while maintaining ties to his heritage through philanthropy, including the establishment of schools, hospitals, and churches.

Did You Know?

• Gulbenkian earned the nickname 'Mr. Five Per Cent' because he consistently retained a fixed 5% of shares in the Turkish Petroleum Company (later Iraqi Petroleum Company).
• He commissioned more than 140 works from the jeweler and glassmaker René Lalique over nearly 30 years.
• His family are believed to be descendants of the Rshtunis, a noble Armenian family from the 4th century AD.
• The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, created in 1956 by his bequest, is now among the largest foundations in Europe.