Jonathan Ruffer

Jonathan Ruffer DL (born 17 August 1951) is a British City investor, art collector and philanthropist.

[2][9] The firm was renamed Ruffer LLP in 2004 and is now based at 80 Victoria Street in London.

[12] Ruffer credits William Rathbone VI as a source of inspiration for his philanthropy.

[13][18][19] In 2013, he donated £18 million to restore the Bishop's Palace and create a museum on the history of Christianity and faith in Britain, which had been expected to open in 2018.

[25] In 2014, Ruffer donated the endowment to create Kynren, a night show telling the history of England, in nearby Bishop Auckland to aid in wider regeneration.

[26] He has endowed the Jonathan Ruffer curatorial grants at The Art Fund, which give £75,000 to curators every year.

[28] Ruffer is married to Jane Sequeira, a doctor, and palliative care specialist.

[5] While he is a great-grandson of Maurice Ruffer (1857-1935), a French-born British banker, she is a descendant of Isaac Henrique Sequeira (1738-1816), a Portuguese Jewish doctor, who was painted by Thomas Gainsborough, one of his patients, and that oil painting now hangs in Madrid's Museo del Prado.

Ruffer purchased Auckland Castle to save the collection of paintings by Zurbarán, that were going to be sold.