Lily Safra was a Brazilian-Monegasque billionaire and socialite who amassed considerable wealth through her four marriages.
23 Facts About Lily Safra
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Lily Safra had a significant art collection and owned the historic Villa Leopolda on the French Riviera.
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Lily Safra became strongly engaged with philanthropy when she married the banker Edmond Safra, and this continued through their foundation after his death in 1999.
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Lily Safra was the daughter of Wolf White Watkins, a railway engineer of Anglo-Jewish origin who was born in Czechoslovakia and moved to South America during the electrification of Brazilian railroads, and Annita Noudelman de Castro, a Uruguayan of Russian Jewish ancestry.
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Lily Safra grew up in Rio de Janeiro, and then moved with her family to Montevideo, Uruguay.
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Lily Safra was a Romanian Jewish immigrant who fled Europe in 1939.
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Lily Safra was a leader in the Brazilian household appliance distribution business, where he established the Ponto Frio brand.
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Lily Safra founded the Republic National Bank of New York.
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Lily Safra's death attracted considerable media interest because of his wealth and position.
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Edmond Lily Safra "apparently felt so safe here that he did not have his bodyguards stay the night when he slept in Monaco".
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Lily Safra died from pancreatic cancer in Geneva on 9 July 2022 at age 87.
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Lily Safra chaired the Edmond J Safra Foundation, which supports medical research and humanitarian relief.
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Lily Safra supported the American Red Cross and helped the Hurricane Katrina victims in 2005.
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In connection with the 2005 sale at Sotheby's of furniture and art from her collection, Lily Safra donated $3 million to charities in New York which she and her husband had supported for many years, along with a gift to Dillard University in New Orleans to help them rebuild after Hurricane Katrina.
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Sotheby's announced in 2011 that an auction of Mr and Mrs Lily Safra's collections, including furniture, artwork, silverware, and decorative objects, took place in New York City.
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In May 2012, Lily Safra proposed to Geneva's Christie's an exceptional auction of 70 pieces of her personal jewelry collection.
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In 2009, Lily Safra was honored by the Elton John AIDS Foundation with its "An Enduring Vision" award for her long-time support.
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In October 2013, Lily Safra donated $1 million in support of the foundation's grant-making programs.
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Lily Safra donated $5 million toward the One Laptop Per Child project.
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Lily Safra established the Edmond J Safra Family Lodge, for patients battling illnesses, as well as their families, at the National Institutes of Health near Washington, DC In July 2010, she donated 8 million euros to the Institute for Brain and Spinal Cord Injuries in Paris.
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Also in 2009, Lily Safra promised the Claude Pompidou Foundation a donation of 7 million euros for the construction and completion of the Claude Pompidou Institute for Alzheimer's research and treatment in the city of Nice, France.
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Lily Safra was a Patron of Hope and Homes for Children in the UK and a supporter of its work for children in Romania.
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Lily Safra was a member of the Chairman's Council of the Museum of Modern Art.