The "Janet Zakos Foundation for the study of Byzantium"
The charitable, non-profit "Janet Zakos Foundation for the study of Byzantium" based in Geneva was founded on December 20, 2005 with funds derived from the liquidation of the heritage of Swiss national Janet Zakos-Bentley, according to her last wish. As executor of the will of the late Janet Zakos-Bentley and founding member of the Foundation, I would like to underline that the foundation has two main objectives: the granting of scholarships exclusively to low-income students who excel in Byzntine Studies (these scholarships are awarded continiusly in recent years in collaboration with the Faculty of Philosophy of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athents), and the purchase, and subsequent donation, of small objects of the Byzantine period in Museums that maintain wings with permanent Byzantine exhibitions. Our Foundation is supervised by both the authorities of the Canton of Geneva and the Federal Swiss Authorities of Bern, who, on account of its charitable activity, granted it tax exemption.
Janet Zakos-Bentley (Instabul, 1936 - Athens, 2003) was the wife of the Constantinopolitan antiquarian Georgios Zacos (Istanbul, 1911 - Basel, 1983), a well-known lover of the history of Byzantium, a great collector and deep connoisseur of Byzantine Sigillography. His imposing works, the tripartie Byzantine Lead Seals, vol. 1, in collaboration with A. Vegleris (Basel, 1972) and his posthumous bipatrite Byzantine Lead Seals, vol. 2, edited by J. W. Nesbitt (Bern 1984), have set the foundations of the special scientific discipline of Byzantine Sigillography, offering at the same time tangible proof of the perceptiveness of Georgios Zacos, his scientific broadness and the genuine interest he had in the study of the Byzantine civilisation through this important research field. It should be noted that in 2013 the bipartite Buzantine Lead Seals, vol. 2, (Bern 1984) was digitised with the permission of our Foundation by the Christian Archeological Society and is now accessible online to all interested parties. (https://www.academia.edu/21815905/Georgios_Zacos_Byzantine_Lead_Seals)
Janet and George Zacos settled in Basel, Switzerland, as early as in the 1960s. After her husband's death, Janet Zakos shared her time between Switzerland and Greece (her house was in Palaio Psychiko). Before her death she donated her personal collection and the last part of her husband's famous collection (a boulloterion, a golden ring, 461 seals and 18 glass weights) to the Museum of Geneva, which in 2006 dedicated a special hall under her name to the permanent exhibition of this important collection. It is worth noting that on the opening day of the Hall "Janet Zakos" the Geneva newspaper LE TEMPS (issue of February 9, 2006) wrote that "Thanks to this donation, the Geneva Museum of Art and History holds now the largest Byzantine collection in Switzerland". According to Mr. Cäsar Menz, Director of the Musées d'art et d'histoire de la Ville de Geneve between 1994 and 2009, "Thanks to the generous gesture of Mrs. Janet Zakos, whom we hold in dear memory, our Museum is now at the forefront in the field of Byzantine Art, in line with the greatest institutes, such as the Dumbarton Oaks Collection in Washington, of the Louvre" (Journal des Musées d'art et d'histoire 1/2005). Janet Zacos' personal collection is presented in the volume Donation Janet Zakos de Rome à Byzance (ed. Marielle Martiniani-Reber, Geneva 2015), while the collection of Byzantine seals was published by Maria Campangolo-Pothitou and Jean-Claude Cheynet, Sceaux de la collection George Zacos au Musée d'art et d'histoire de Genéve (Geneva 2016).