Clara Winthrop, Date of Birth, Date of Death
TweetClara Winthrop
US philanthropist, art collector
Date of Birth: 12-Mar-1876
Date of Death: 15-Mar-1969
Profession: art collector
Nationality: United States
Zodiac Sign: Pisces 
About Clara Winthrop
- Clara Bowdoin Winthrop (born March 12, 1876, Boston, Massachusetts - died March 15, 1969) was a philanthropist, art collector, and relative of John Kerry, a U.S.
- Senator and former presidential candidate.
- Winthrop was the daughter of Robert and Elizabeth Winthrop and a descendant of John Winthrop.
- As an adult, she was a wealthy and childless philanthropist, funding the education of John Kerry, her sister's grandson.
- The Boston Globe wrote: "Among the array of relatives who looked after John, none was more important to his education than great-aunt Clara Winthrop, who had no children of her own.
- She owned an estate in Manchester-by-the-Sea, complete with a bowling alley inside a red barn.
- Winthrop offered to pay for much of John's prep school education, an expensive proposition far beyond the means of Kerry's parents.
- "It was a great and sweet and nice thing from an aunt who had no place to put [her money]," Kerry said.
- Such a gift today might be worth about $30,000 per year, given the school's typical annual cost before subsidies."Winthrop was a world traveler, and is known to have visited India.
- While on a trip to Italy, Winthrop purchased an oil painting which was thought to be a reproduction of a work by Andrea del Sarto.
- In 1935 she donated the painting to the All Saints' Episcopal Church in West Newbury, Massachusetts.
- The painting hung over the choir stalls in an enormous gilt frame for several years until it was taken down and stored in a closet, and then in the rectory's attic.
- In 1999, it was discovered that the painting was not an imitation, but was The Madonna and Child by del Sarto.
- The painting was then sold at auction by Sotheby's for $1,102,500. The Clara B.
- Winthrop Trust is named for her.
Read more at Wikipedia