Neptune Papers Issue Eleven - Cover Six: The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum by Jacobs Lillis
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Introducing Issue Eleven of cover 6 of 6: Calouste Gulbenkian, the man who collected the world.
He was a billionaire with a role-befitting touch of ruthlessness on the job, eccentricity in lifestyle, and — uncommon among his contemporary successors — the highest refinement in taste. During his lifetime, the oil magnate Calouste Gulbenkian (1869–1955) was considered the richest man in the world, and people were fascinated by him. He was utterly elusive, though: “a celebrity, albeit one not famous for being famous, but rather famous for being mysterious,” as his biographer Jonathan Conlin writes. A loner and introvert by nature, he slept every night of his adult life in a hotel, often leaving his family behind in their mansion Paris. Gulbenkian’s grandson Mikhael Essayan recalled that his mother, Calouste’s daughter, once remarked that the only things her father seemed to be interested in were oil, art, and horticulture.
“Gulbenkian was of Armenian origin, born in Constantinople when it was the capital of the Ottoman Empire. He died when it was Istanbul, the capital of Turkey,” says Xavier F. Salomon, the new director of the museum. “He lived between London, Paris, and Lisbon, traveled all over the world, but also lived through massive historical changes. He witnessed both World Wars. He had a real sense of history and geography in a subtle and complex way. For him, borders were permeable and cultures were prone to change.”
Today, there is a way into Gulbenkian’s soul. It runs through the rooms and corners of his namesake museum in Lisbon, which opened 14 years after his death and holds his unparalleled collection of 6,000 pieces of art, jewelry, coins and artisanal objects, 1,500 of which are exhibited there, spanning from the Ancient Egyptian and Greco-Roman Empires to the contemporary artists and artisans of his lifetime.
Pictured here: ‘The Loves of the Centaurs’ (1635) by Peter Paul Rubens.
This issue features: Alexandre Lorquin, Analuisa Corrigan, Andre Herrero, Augustin Deleuze, Baccarat, Brigette Romanek, Cartier in L.A., Casa Muñoz, David Reed, Dean Levin, Delfin Finley, Dorian Grinspan, Elizabeth Roberts, Émilie Hammen, Emma McIntyre, Esu Lee, Festen, Florian Krewer, François-Joseph Graf, Gulbenkian Museum, Hermès Maison, Hortense de Gromard, Ingrid Donat, Jacopo Venturini, Joanna Plant, Jonathan Brown, John Zabawa, Kelly Wearstler, Kohshin Finley, Lemon, Lisa Eisner, Manolo Vosse, Nina Charles, Nina Zanzem, Nordic Knots, Pierre Lorquin, Ralph Lauren, Rimowa, Robert Vifian, Rug & Kilim, Rose Uniacke, Sanam Khatibi, Studio Peregalli Sartori, Studio Valle de Valle, Thibo Denis, Toteme and Wes Gordon.
Note: All covers feature identical content, with every shoot included.
Orders featuring our Issue Eleven will begin shipping on November 9, 2026.
