included a number of pieces from Levy and White's substantial art collection, which also includes art from the Near East. Between 1997 and 2003, Levy and White donated nearly $5 million to 107 scholars for the publication of archaeological excavations that had been completed but never published. The projects funded by their program, the Shelby White-Leon Levy Program for Archaeological Publications, include excavations at some of the highest profile archaeological sites throughout Greece and the Middle East, including Knossos, Aphrodisias, Kition, Ras Shamra, Sarepta, Mount Gerizim, Ekron, Lachish, Megiddo, Jerusalem, Pella, Jerash, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Assur, Nineveh, Nuzi, and Tepe Hissar. They also funded the Leon Levy Expedition at Ashkelon, Israel; created the Leon Levy Visitor Center at the New York Botanical Garden; and financed the Shelby White and Leon Levy Center for Mind Brain and Behavior at Rockefeller University, where Levy was a member of the Board. Levy also served as President of the Board of the Institute for Advanced Study, Vice Chairman of the Institute of Fine Arts at New York University, and was a director of Bard College, and many other not-for-profit boards. The Leon Levy Foundation and Shelby White, as Chairman of the Friends of the Israel Antiquities Authority, provided the funds for conserving the extraordinarily well-preserved Lod Mosaic and established the Shelby White and Leon Levy Lod Mosaic Archaeological Center, which will house the mosaic once it returns from its 2010-2016 international exhibition tour. After his death in 2003, Levy's philanthropy was continued through the Leon Levy Foundation, and one of its earliest initiatives was the fulfillment of that plan. In spring, 2006, the Leon Levy Foundation pledged $200 million to New York University for the creation of the Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, a center for advanced scholarly research and graduate education, intended to cultivate cross-cultural study of the ancient world, from the western Mediterranean to China. Antiquities controversy The donation created controversy among some academics who believe that collectors of antiquities encourage the looting of ancient sites. In their 2006 book The Medici Conspiracy: The Illicit Journey of Looted Antiquities – From Italy's Tomb Raiders to the World's Greatest Museums, Peter Watson and Cecelia Todeschini lay out the dynamics of the illegal trade in antiquities and use Leon Levy and Shelby White as an example of collectors whose purchases may have led to unethical dealing in artifacts. One NYU