Numbers

Mr. Five Percent

"Mr. Five Percent" was the nickname given to Calouste Gulbenkian, the Armenian-British businessman, who played a major role in developing the oil reserves in the Middle East in the first half of the 20th Century.  The origin of his nickname came from his five percent stake in the Iraqi Petroleum Company.

During World War II, Mr. Gulbenkian settled Lisbon, Portugal where he died in 1955.  A large portion of his wealth was used to establish the Fundação Calouste Gulbenkian, which today has assets of around €2.5 billion and an annual budget of around €100 million.  In addition, his extensive collection of art, which included paintings by Rubens, Degas, and Monet, as well as ancient Egyptian sculptures and jewelery created by René Lalique, who was a personal friend, was used to create the Museu Calouste Gulbenkian in Lisbon.

How It's Used

"Thus was negotiated the Group Agreement of November 1948, which reconstituted the Iraq Petroleum Company. What Gulbenkian got, in addition to higher overall production and other advantages, was an extra allocation of oil. Mr. Five Percent was no more; he was now something greater."

"A Turkish-born Armenian, Gulbenkian took British citizenship in 1920. He dedicated much of the fortune he made as 'Mr Five Per Cent', the owner of 5 per cent of the Iraqi Petroleum Company, to building up his art collection. He proudly offered to give it all to the National Gallery, and was even planning to pay for the construction of a purpose-built annexe in which to display it.

"But his relationship with the gallery, and with the British government, soured during the Second World War. Gulbenkian was angered when the British classified him an 'enemy alien,' when he stayed in his Paris home after the German invasion. He demanded that the classification be wiped from his record, but the British refused, with one government memo in 1944 referring to him as a 'slippery benefactor'. Gulbenkian had also earned the government's disapproval by his attempts to avoid paying British tax on his millions. After years of negotiations, the bequest fell through when Gulbenkian's friend, Kenneth Clark, was replaced as director of the National Gallery by the irascible Philip Hendy, who opposed his plans."

"Armoyan speaks Armenian, Arabic and Turkish—although he only visited Armenia for the first time this past summer. However, he says, 'two Armenians inspire me': One is Calouste Gulbenkian, who gained renown—including the sobriquet “Mr. Five Percent”—for his deftness as a middleman between Western oil companies and Turkish and Iraqi oil interests after the First World War. The other is billionaire corporate raider Kirk Kerkorian."

"A prominent Armenian businessman in the Ottoman Empire, known as 'Mr. Five Percent' for his shares in the oil business, did not leave any information in his well-kept records about his reported desire to open a museum in Turkey, according to the president of the foundation in charge of his collection."

"The Kouyoumdjians, another prominent family, trace their roots in Iraq from even before their business and family connections to Calouste Gulbenkian, the famed Mr Five Percent of Iraqi oil rights a century ago."

Links