Gerard L. Cafesjian: As a Collector Gerard L. Cafesjian was born in 1925 to Armenian parents in Brooklyn, New York. Cafesjian's love of art began early in life. As a young boy, he would spend hours at the Metropolitan Museum of Art and said that he wished he could live there. After serving in the Pacific theater during World War II, Cafesjian used his G.I. Bill benefits to pursue a degree in economics at Hunter College and later a law degree at St. John’s University Law School. During this time Cafesjian also studied painting and sculpture at the New York Art Students League on 57th Street in Manhattan. After graduating, Cafesjian began working as a legal editor for West Publishing and eventually became the firm’s executive vice president. Amongst many other professional accomplishments, Cafesjian initiated West’s annual exhibition program Art & the Law in 1975. While Cafesjian maintained a high-profile position at West, he generally avoided publicity until 1990 when he made a $600,000 contribution to help save the 1914 State Fair Carousel in St. Paul, Minnesota (now named the Cafesjian Carousel) from demolition. Following his retirement in 1996, Cafesjian began dedicating much of his time and resources to philanthropic work, particularly in his parents’ home country of Armenia. In 2001, he established the Cafesjian Family Foundation, through which he devoted millions of dollars to Armenian development projects associated with renewable energy, media distribution, and security. While Cafesjian acknowledged that political lobbying was necessary to bolster his efforts and to “help guide U.S. policy in Armenia,” he also recognized that that was only one part of the puzzle. According to one record of his first visit to the country, Cafesjian was sincerely affected by the pride and ambition of the Armenian people. With a deep understanding of the intimate and transformative powers of art, Cafesjian set out to invest in cultural enrichment programs. One of the crowning achievements of this investment was the creation of the Cafesjian Center for the Arts in Yerevan, in 2009. Through a world-class collection of over 5,000 works, including many from his own collection, Cafesjian sought for the museum to “provide support and encouragement to Armenian artists to continue the rich tradition of Armenians' artistic expression.” For over 60 years Cafesjian was an avid art collector and thus amassed an extensive and prestigious body of work. When surveying the thousands of fine art works and decorative pieces that Cafesjian collected during his lifetime, you could almost get lost in the seemingly random nature of his taste. On closer inspection however, Cafesjian’s earnest love of whimsy and avant-garde form becomes clear.
"Not just for Art's Sake; Partnership between a Republic and a Foundation." Aim, vol. 14, no. 1, Aug, 2003, pp. 26. Papas, Lisa B. "Gerard L. Cafesjian." Agbu, vol. 9, no. 2, Apr 30, 1999, pp. 41.
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