John Berggruen

John Henry Berggruen (born June 18, 1943) is an American art dealer who owns Berggruen Gallery in San Francisco, California, which has been a fixture in the Bay Area art scene since 1970. Early life and education Berggruen was born June 18, 1943 in San Francisco, California to Heinz Berggruen, a noted German-born art collector and dealer, and Lillian Zellerbach, a scion of the prominent San Francisco family. His maternal grandfather was Isadore Zellerbach (1866-1941), who was the president of Crown Zellerbach Paper Company, and a devoted philanthropist. His father, Heinz worked as an art critic for the San Francisco Chronicle, and in 1939 he became an assistant to the director at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art. While organizing a Diego Rivera exhibition, Heinz had an affair with Rivera’s wife Frida Kahlo. Berggruen's parents divorced in 1945, and Heinz moved back to Europe. Berggruen started his career in politics, working for the Democratic party while attending college. He graduated from San Francisco State University in 1966 and took an impromptu trip to Paris after graduation, in part to get to know his father, who operated a gallery there.