Roy Rothschild Neuberger (July 21, 1903 – December 24, 2010) was an American financier who contributed money to raise public awareness of modern art through his acquisition of pieces he deemed worthy. He was a co-founder of the investment firm Neuberger Berman. Roy Neuberger served for several decades as Honorary Trustee, Benefactor, and member of the Department of Modern Art's Visiting Committee at The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Biography Roy Rothschild Neuberger (unrelated to the famous Rothschild family) was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, and spent his childhood in New York City. Born into a wealthy Jewish family, he was orphaned at the age of 12 after the deaths of his father Louis Neuberger, an immigrant from Germany and his mother, Bertha Rothschild, who was originally from Chicago. Neuberger described himself as having been interested during high school in tennis. He matriculated at New York University, originally to study journalism, but grew restless and dropped out without obtaining a degree. His first job was working in the Manhattan department store B. Altman and Company. Among the things he practiced selling were paintings, which nurtured his love of art. He sailed to Europe at age 20 on an inheritance from his parents, and went to live in Paris. He enjoyed a bohemian lifestyle there, visiting the Louvre three times a week, where he met his lifelong friend, 20th-century art historian Meyer Schapiro. Neuberger painted and studied art until 1928, when he read Florent Fels' biography of Vincent van Gogh. He was startled when he learned how Van Gogh had only sold one painting, and was heartstricken to learn that Van Gogh, like so many other artists, lived in pain, poverty and misery. Appalled that artwork was often only considered valuable after an artist's death, Neuberger vowed to support living artists, claiming "the contemporary world should buy the work of contemporary artists." Neuberger often purchased works from artists who were struggling financially, including Jackson Pollock, Willem DeKooning, and Mark Rothko, believing that the financial support would help the artists stay on their career track. He moved back to the United States and entered Wall Street in 1929, seven months before Black Tuesday. He started out with Halle & Stieglitz and sold short RCA shares, through the stock market crash and well into the Great Depression. He founded Neuberger Berman in 1939 with Robert Berman. In 1950, Neuberger's firm started one of the first