Constantine (Dinos) Leventis

Constantine Leventis was a friend to generations of classicists throughout the world, a successful businessman, a determined environmentalist and an architect of the recovery of Cypriot culture. An inspiring entrepreneur-philanthropist, he was one of Hellenic culture's most generous sponsors.

Born in Larnaca, Cyprus, in 1938, he was sent to complete his education at Harrow, where his classmates included Robin Butler, Jonathan Scott and Costas Carras. From Harrow he won a scholarship to Clare College, Cambridge, to study Classics. He retained his love of classical literature, drama, history and art and later enlarged it to embrace the entire range of archaeology, especially of Cyprus and Greece, and the problems of the restoration and conservation of historical buildings and artefacts.

The British Museum was a beneficiary of this concern in 1987 when the new A.G. Leventis Gallery was inaugurated to display Cypriot antiquities from the early Bronze Age to the Roman period. In 1997 a similar display opened at the Fitzwilliam Museum, and in 2000 another at the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

In 1959, however, when Dino Leventis left Cambridge, he was destined to join his uncle's business in the newly independent West African state of Ghana. Anastasios Leventis, who served as economic adviser to Kwame Nkrumah, was expanding his company into Nigeria, and by shrewd investments in bottling was capturing a share of the world distribution of Coca-Cola. Dino worked in Ghana and Nigeria for nearly 20 years developing his uncle's interests in modern agriculture methods and the ecologically sound preservation of the natural environment.

The Turkish invasion of the northern half of Cyprus in 1974 shattered the world of the diaspora Greek Cypriots in West Africa, who lost their family base in Petra, together with its cultural centre and the church. From this decisive moment on, Dino Leventis was concerned to save and protect the cultural heritage of his homeland, initiating a campaign to purchase Cypriot artefacts smuggled out of the island, which he presented to museums. This culminated in the Indianapolis case concerning sixth-century mosaic panels from the church at Kanakaria, a lawsuit that set an important precedent for the return of cultural property.

At the same time, he worked tirelessly for rapprochement between Turkish and Greek Cypriots, supporting the British parliamentary group Friends of Cyprus, and conferences which brought both sides together at the University of North London.

In 1977 Leventis returned to London and was appointed Ambassador and Permanent Delegate of Cyprus to Unesco, an honorary post which enabled him to encourage major investments in ancient, medieval and historically significant modern buildings, particularly in his native Cyprus.

Two years later he became Chairman of the Trustees of the A.G. Leventis Foundation established by his uncle. For the next 23 years he supervised its activities as well as those of its sister foundations in Cyprus and Nigeria. All three run extensive programmes devoted to education, with five agricultural schools in West Africa and numerous scholarships for Greek-Cypriot, Greek and Nigerian nationals to study in the UK; to the protection of the environment, through Conservation Centres in Nigeria, Ghana and Cyprus; and to the preservation of cultural heritage.

In his capacity as chairman Leventis supported conferences, publications, exhibitions and intellectual projects such as the "Commentators on Aristotle" (based at King's College London) and the "Lexikon of Greek Personal Names" (at Oxford). The foundation sponsored posts in ancient Greek and Byzantine studies at Oxford, Trinity College Dublin and Edinburgh, as well as bursaries for students at York, London, Athens, Paris, Würzburg and New York.

In 1985 Leventis was elected to the Council of Europa Nostra, the European heritage umbrella organisation, and served as its treasurer, extending its work to the restoration of historic monuments in Bulgaria, as well as Greece and Cyprus. In the 1990s, he encouraged the establishment of Cyprus's first university, and subsequently sat on its council.

A deeply religious man, Leventis was archon of the Oecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople, the head of the Greek Orthodox Church, and a close friend of the Patriarch of Alexandria and All-Africa, whom he met originally in Lagos. In 1997 he arranged for Patriarch Petros to visit England to open a conference on "Images of Alexandria" held at King's College London, and to preach in the Orthodox Church at Golders Green.

In addition to providing financial assistance to the Oecumenical Patriarch and the Orthodox Church in the UK, Leventis and his wife Edmée, whom he married in 1970, were the moving force behind the establishment in 1994 of the Hellenic Centre in London. This created a focus for a variety of Greek activities – concerts, lectures, exhibitions of contemporary art and historic photographs, and in 2000 a major display of Cypriot icons.

Dino Leventis kept his name out of Who's Who and remained a very private person, scrupulous and attentive. He smiled a lot, said little and did innumerable good deeds. He refused public acclaim. When Birmingham University offered him an honorary degree, he asked that it be bestowed on the Cypriot High Commissioner instead.