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| Birth Name(s) : Stavros Niarchos |
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Full Stavros Niarchos Biography
Stavros Spyros Niarchos (3 July 1909 – 16 April 1996) was a millionaire Greek shipping tycoon, sometimes known as "The Golden Greek." In 1952, Stavros Niarchos built the first supertankers capable of transporting large quantities of oil, and subsequently earned millions of dollars as global demand for his ships increased.
He was born in Athens, son of Spyros Niarchos and his wife, the former Eugenia Coumandaros. His parents were naturalized Americans and had owned a department store in Buffalo, New York before returning to Greece, three months prior to his birth. He studied law at the University of Athens, after which he went to work in the Coumandaros family's grain business. During this period, he became involved in shipping by convincing his relatives that greater profits could be achieved if the firm owned the ships involved.
He was a naval officer in World War II, during which time part of the trade fleet he had built with his uncle was destroyed. He used about two million dollars in insurance monies to build a new fleet.
In 1952, Stavros Niarchos built the first supertankers capable of transporting large quantities of oil. His naval rival, Aristotle Onassis, did the same in 1952. In 1956 the Suez Canal Crisis considerably increased the demand for the type of large tonnage ships that Niarchos owned. Business flourished and he became a billionaire.
Niarchos's five marriages produced two daughters: Maria and Elena and three sons: Philippos, known as Philippe (the father of Stavros Niarchos III), Spyros, and Konstantin.
- His first marriage, in 1930 to Helen Sporides, a daughter of Admiral Constantine Sporides, lasted one year.
- His second marriage was to Melpomene Capparis in 1939, whom he divorced in 1947.
- His third wife was Eugenia Livanos in 1947, a daughter of shipping magnate Stavros G. Livanos; they divorced in 1965, and she died in 1970, at the age of 44, after an overdose of barbiturates.
- During this marriage he had an affair with Pamela Churchill (later Pamela Harriman).
- His fourth wife was American automotive heiress and socialite Charlotte Ford (a daughter of Henry Ford II) in Mexico. Ford was at the time pregnant with their daughter, Elena Anne Ford, and the child was born six months later. The marriage ended in divorce the following year, whereupon Niarchos returned to his former wife, Eugenia. No remarriage was necessary, since the couple's 1965 Mexican divorce was not recognized in Greece.
- in 1971, Niarchos married his wife Eugenia's sister, Athina, Marchioness of Blandford, who had been the first wife of Aristotle Onassis. She also died from an overdose, in 1974.
In 1956 Niarchos acquired the important art collection of actor Edward G. Robinson and over the years put together one of the world's most significant collections with more than one hundred Impressionist and post-Impressionist paintings. In 1989, he purchased Picasso's self-portrait "Yo Picasso" for $47,850,000, plus he acquired works by Van Gogh, Goya, El Greco, and Rubens.
After his death in 1996, his daughter Maria Niarchos-Gouazé took charge of the racing operations. She continued to build on his success, and in 2004 her colt Bago won France's most important race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. |
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