Leonard Lauder

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Leonard Lauder (born 1934) was chief executive of Estée Lauder Companies until 1999; now he serves as chairman of the board. Today Estee Lauder operates several brands in the cosmetics industry including Estee Lauder, Clinique, MAC Cosmetics, Aveda, Bobbi Brown and Stila. Lauder gained noteriety in 2001 for creating the Lipstick index, a since discredited economic indicator.

Leonard Lauder comes from the Lauder family, a prominent Jewish family in the cosmetics business; he is the son of Joseph and Estée Lauder, and the older brother of Ronald Lauder.

Leonard Lauder has long been a major benefactor of the Whitney Museum of American Art, where he has been chairman since 1994. He has donated both money and many works of art to the Whitney, and is the museum's most prolific fundraiser. The fifth floor permanent collection galleries are named for him and his wife, Evelyn. In 1998, he told a reporter for the New York Times that his "dream job" was to be the Whitney Museum's director. Most recently Lauder gave $131 million for the Whitney's endowment.

Lauder is a major art collector (he began by buying Art Deco postcards when he was six), but his particular focus, rather than American works, is expensive, classic Cubist works by Picasso, Braque, Gris, Léger and Klimt.

Lauder's interest in postcards lead him to be acquainted with one of the owners of the Gotham Book Mart, a well-known Manhattan bookstore, and he sought to help the Gotham reestablish its presence in the city when the owner had sold its longtime building and needed a new space. Lauder bought a building at 16 East 46th Street along with a partner, letting the building's storefront space to the Gotham. Later, the Gotham fell behind on rents, eventually resulting in Lauder and his partner to file for eviction. In a much-publicised closure of the renowned bookstore, the city marshall later auctioned the store's inventory, which was bought in a lot by Lauder and his partner to some protest from many other independent book sellers and collectors who were present at the proceedings and hoping to purchase some of the bibliophilic treasures.^[1]