Publication

Milestones, Winter 2000

Three exceptional Britisih brothers who have made the worldwide preservation of cultural sites and monuments thelr personal concern received the WorId Monuments Fund's 12th annual Hadrian Award at a luncheon at New York's Plaza Horel on October 22, 1999. Lord John Sainsbury of Preston Candover, the Hon. Simon Sainsbury, and Sir Timothy Sainsbury were recognized for their individual and fraternal efforts in historic preservation. Four generations of Sainsburys have been associated with the growth ofJ. Sainsbury PLC, which began as a small market in London's Drury Lane in 1869. The generarion represented by John, Simon, and Timothy Sainsbury has channeled much ofits family fortune into charitable foundations which support their wide~rangingcultural interests.

Through the Butrint Foundation, which he established with Lord Rothschild, Lord Sainsbury has beendeeply involved with preservation work at the World Monuments Watch site of Burrint, Albania, once an important Roman trading center. Hon. Simon Sainsbury is a major supporter of the World Monuments Fund in Britain, and Sir Timothy Sainsbury has helped fund projects in the former Communist countries of Eastern Europe. Lord Sainsbury's other philanthropies include the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden, ofwhich he is a past chairman, and its tenant, the Royal Ballet, which he currently chairs. The opera house just reopened after an extensive redevelopment project that received major support from the Sainsburys. He has contributed to the restoration of many major structures in Great Britain, including Westminsrer Abbey and Winchester Cathedral, through his Linbury Trusr. Simon Sainsbury has contributed subsrantially to the work ofthe British N arional T rusr through his Monument Trust, which also supports community participation in conserva~ tion. The trust currently is surveying eighteenth-cenrury buildings in Calcutta.

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