Foundation's starring role in Chinese charity

Shanghai - An entrepreneur buying cultural relics may be regarded as a collector, but Maurice Greenberg, former American International Group Inc head and current chairman of C.V. Starr & Co, does so more as an exercise in charity.

Indeed, acts including his repurchase of the ornate window frames of Buddhist Incense (Fo Xiang Ge in Chinese) from the Summer Palace that were returned to China in 1993 through his Starr Foundation, are evidence of Greenberg's efforts to help Chinese society.

The Starr Foundation has made total grants of more than $223 million to China-related organizations since 1956. China has become one of the largest overseas recipients with 9.51 percent of the foundation's grants donated to it in the past 15 years.