Anastase Simu

While the genealogical record is incomplete, it appears that his father Panait was a native of Epirus, part of the city's powerful Greek community, and ran a candle factory with his brother.

[6][3] Simu retained ties to Brăila, donating 30 paintings to its city hall in 1928; these formed the nucleus of an art museum opened in 1950.

A member of the Conservative Party, he showed particular interest in the situation of Macedonia’s Aromanians, deploring the Liberal government’s closure of regional schools and of the consulate in Bitola.

He was good friends with sculptor Antoine Bourdelle, whose penchant for classical forms may have inspired the museum’s Greek temple shape.

[5] Belying his image of a connoisseur with academic and passé inclinations, Simu was among the first to purchase works by the young Constantin Brâncuși: the marble sculpture Somnul in 1909, and the bust of painter Nicolae Dărăscu the following year.