Evidence of the generosity of the Christian Humann Foundation can be found in quiet little signs and plaques all over the Island _ in museums, and art galleries and even classrooms.
The foundation is named for the late financier Christian Humann who was born in France in 1929 and died in 1981. The Humann family has been connected with Bermuda since before the Second World War, but it was Christian’s vision that led to the creation of the foundation, which was the first private foundation created under Bermuda law. Before his death he envisioned a foundation that would be fully committed to supporting the arts, visual and performance, as well as education and science related initiatives and enterprises.
Christian enjoyed a successful career as a financier and senior partner with Tucker, Anthony and R. L. Day in New York City. His overriding passion, however, was collecting art, particularly from India and Europe. During his lifetime he built an impressive collection of art and artifacts.
This interest in art and collecting was in large measure ‘inherited’ from his mother’s family whose fortune was lost, one might even say “confiscated” during the Second World War. Christian’s mother came from a good Jewish banking family and his father’s side was French aristocratic. Their father was in both world wars and was a prisoner of war when the rest of the family fled for the United States. He did eventually escape and was reunited with his family in America several years later. The Humann’s extensive art collection was left behind and seized by the Nazis, never to be recovered. Christian was only a small child at this time, but during his adulthood set about putting together an impressive collection of his own of Indian and European art.
Following his death and in compliance with his wishes, it was the proceeds from the sale of this significant collection that the family was able to realize his dream and establish in 1985 the giving policy that guides the Foundation to this day. Parts of the collection can now be found in major art institutions such as the Metropolitan Museum in New York and the Frick Gallery.
Christian’s younger brother, Edgar, is Chairman of the fund. He is former Senior Vice President of Bessemer Trust Company, and is a graduate of Brown University and of the University of Virginia Law School. He is the former Honorary Consul for France and has been awarded de la Legion d’Honneur and Chevalier de L’Order du Merite. He and his wife, Faith, are retired and have lived in Bermuda for the last 20 years.
The Foundation has a Board of Directors which includes Faith Humann, Col. Michael Darling, Frank Peniston, Cummings Zuill, Kerstin Humann and nephew Christian Humann.
The Foundation has helped art galleries such as Masterworks and Bermuda National Gallery fund major exhibitions and purchase paintings important to their collections. They have also helped with programs with an educational focus such as the Centre for Talented Youth and Alliance Francaise, Bermuda Institute of Ocean Sciences (BIOS) and The Reading Clinic.
The Humanns like to keep a hands-on approach to the charities they help and sit on the boards as trustees of many of them, including CTY. They have also given to art museums and programs in the United States. Edgar said they have been so generous to Bermuda, because they want to make a difference.
“But we are fully subscribed,” said Edgar. “The money goes pretty rapidly when the pot is divided. I am more of a music lover. I appreciate art. My brother was an incredible collector and art lover and knew things very well. He had a great knowledge of the arts.”
