BarcelonaBritish banker and philanthropist Jacob Rothschild, a prominent member of the prominent Rothschild business dynasty with branches in several European countries, died this Monday at the age of 87, according to his family in a statement.
“Very sad to hear the news about Jacob Rothschild,” the former British finance minister and current president of the British Museum, George Osborne, expressed in a message on the social network X (formerly Twitter). “He made the most of the privileges he had since he was born, contributing immensely to the cultural and commercial life of Britain.”
Born in 1936, Rothschild had the typical education of the English upper classes: he studied at the well-known and elite Eton school before graduating in history at Christ Church College, one of the most prestigious at the University of Oxford. Later, he went to work at the family bank NM Rothschild, but a fight with his cousin Evelyn Rothschild led her to sell his stake and create the RIT Capital Partners fund, explains the Financial Times.
In 1991 Rothschild also founded the financial consultancy J Rothschild Assurance Group, which years later was renamed St James’ Place Wealth Management. In 2003 he was appointed vice-president of BSkyB, the British subsidiary of the American audiovisual giant Comcast and owner of the Sky News network. He was also a member of the international advisory board of the Blackstone fund.
According to the family statement, he was “an enormously gifted financier, a champion of the arts and culture, a devoted public servant, a passionate supporter of benevolent causes in Israel and Jewish culture, a staunch defender of the environment and a very dear friend, father and grandfather.” The family did not explain the reasons for the transfer.
The Rothschild family has had a central role in European finance since at the end of the 18th century Mayer Amschel Rothschild, son of a money changer from the Frankfurt Jewry, created a company through which he distributed his five children to the main European capitals to expand the business. His third son, Nathan Mayer Rothschild, settled in London, where he made his fortune investing in British treasury bonds just before the Battle of Waterloo, in which Britain and other allies defeated Napoleon’s France.
Philanthropic life
Despite his long career in the financial sector, Rothschild played a prominent role in British public life as a patron of the arts and philanthropist. Among his most notable positions is that of president of the board of trustees of the National Gallery, the largest art gallery in London and one of the most prestigious in the world, between 1985 and 1991, in addition to presiding over the United Kingdom National Lottery fund, which manages the profits from lottery sales by allocating them to social projects.
In fact, the British artist Lucian Freud—clean of the father of psychoanalysis, Sigmund Freud—painted a portrait in 1989 titled man in a chair. In 1998 he was made a Fellow of the British Academy and four years later Queen Elizabeth II made him a Member of the Order of Merit, an honor reserved for only 24 people.
Among his projects at the head of the National Lottery fund is the restoration of the neoclassical palace Somerset House – converted into an art center – and Spencer House, an 18th century mansion, both in the center of London. In addition, he renovated Waddesdon Manor Castle, in northwest London, built in 1880 by his ancestor Ferdinand de Rothschild and where he himself settled in an adjacent pavilion originally built for tea.
In addition, he also presided over Yad Hanadiv, the foundation of the Rothschild family in Israel, for almost thirty years. According to the Financial Times, Rothschild will be buried in a discreet Jewish ceremony.