Shelby White

[6] In the 1970s, White married Leon Levy, an American investor and philanthropist, and she and her husband developed an interest in antiquities and started bidding at New York auctions in 1975.

[4][7] White began her career as an author and financial journalist and wrote for publications including Forbes, Town and Country and The New York Times.

[10] In the early 1990s, White and Levy gave 16 artifacts to the British Museum after having been shown evidence that the objects may have been surreptitiously removed from Roman ruins in Icklingham, England.

[9] The Office of Manhattan District Attorney General seized 89 stolen antiquities, valued at $69 million and originating from 10 different countries, and returned some of them to Turkey[14] and Yemen.

Philippe de Montebello, the Met’s director, said the gift “moves us significantly toward finally making the broad spectrum of our Greek and Roman holdings accessible to all visitors.”[19] In 2000, White was appointed to the Cultural Property Advisory Committee, a government organization formed in 1983 to help combat illicit international trade of antiquities.