Rabindranath Tagore
Rabindranath Tagore was an Indian Bengali polymath. Had he been born in the West he would now be as revered as Shakespeare and Goethe, according to Ravi Shankar.
Gary Gilmore
Gary Gilmore was an American criminal, and murderer, who gained international notoriety for demanding that his own death sentence be fulfilled following two murders he committed in Utah.
Han van Meegeren
Han van Meegeren was a Dutch painter and portraitist, and is considered to be one of the most ingenious art forgers of the 20th century.
Hardy Rodenstock
Hardy Rodenstock is a former publisher and manager of pop and Schlager music in Germany and is a prominent wine collector, connoisseur and trader, with a special interest in old and rare wines. He became famous for an uncanny ability to track down old and very rare wines, and for arranging extravagant wine tastings featuring these wines.
Hans Sloane
Hans Sloane was a physician and collector, notable for bequeathing his collection to the British nation which became the foundation of the British Museum. He also invented drinking chocolate and gave his name to Sloane Square in London.
Grace Coddington
Grace Coddington was the creative director of US Vogue for 28 years.
The Eduard von der Heydt
Eduard von der Heydt was a German and Swiss banker, art collector and patron. He was also the former owner of the Monte Verità, a well-known site of many different uopian and cultural events and communities.
Jay J. Armes
Jay J. Armes is an American amputee, private investigator, and actor. He is known for his prosthetic hands.
Kazuo Ohno
Kazuo Ohno was a Japanese dancer who became a guru and inspirational figure in Butoh dance.
Sir William Hamilton
The life of Sir William Hamilton is rich in contradictions: hedonist, scholar and an aesthete with a Rabelaisian streak, he represented the epitome of honourable public service until, as the eighteenth century drew to its climax, his personal life and career were flung into freefall when he became involved in the most scandalous menage a trois of the century. The son of a favourite courtier, William Hamilton began life sharing a wet-nurse with the future George III, and spent much of his childhood in the discordant atmosphere of the Hanoverian household. After several years as a soldier, courtier and MP, he turned to the diplomatic world and, in 1764, was sent to Naples as Envoy Extraordinary to the Kingdom of the Two Sicilies. There Hamilton could indulge the two passions: volcanoes and vases. His meticulous observations of Vesuvius earned him a Fellowship of the Royal Society. His unique collection of vases was eventually acquired by the British Museum. Later in life he also worked with Wedgwood and Boulton. Yet, for most people, William Hamilton is not remembered as a diplomat, art-collector, naturalist, musician and scholar but as the cuckolded husband of Emma Hamilton, mistress of the heroic Lord Nelson.