page_title: Armand Hammer
section_title: Legacy
hierarchical_section_title: Armand Hammer / Legacy
caption_attribution_description: English: Sign of Holmby Park, Holmby Hills, Los Angeles, California.
context_page_description: Armand Hammer was an American business manager and owner, most closely associated with Occidental Petroleum, a company he ran from 1957 until his death. He was known as well for his art collection and his close ties to the Soviet Union.
  Hammer's business interests around the world and his "citizen diplomacy" helped him cultivate a wide network of friends and associates.
context_section_description: Politically, Hammer was a supporter of the Republican Party. He boosted Richard Nixon's presidential campaign with $54,000 in campaign contributions. He pleaded guilty to charges that one of these donations had been made illegally and received probation and a $3,000 fine, but was later pardoned by Republican U.S. President George H. W. Bush.
  Hammer purchased Knoedler, the oldest art gallery in America, in 1971. 
  He was a collector of Impressionist and Post-Impressionist paintings. His personal donation forms the core of the permanent collection of the UCLA Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California. Together with his brother Victor, he was the owner of the famed "Hammer Galleries" in New York City.
  Hammer was a philanthropist, supporting causes related to education, medicine, and the arts. Among his legacies is the Armand Hammer United World College of the American West (now generally called the UWC-USA, part of the United World Colleges). By the time of his death, Hammer had won the Soviet Union's Order of Friendship of Peoples, the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement (1978), the U.S. National Medal of Arts (1987), France's Legion of Honor, Italy's Grand Order of Merit, Sweden's Royal Order of the Polar Star, Austria's Knight Commander's Cross, Pakistan's Hilal-i-Quaid-Azam Peace Award, Israel's Leadership Award, Venezuela's Order of Andrés Bello, Mexico's National Recognition Award, Bulgaria's Jubilee Medal, and Belgium's Order of the Crown. Hammer hungered for a Nobel Peace Prize, and he was repeatedly nominated for one, including by Menachem Begin, but never won.
  In 1986, Forbes magazine estimated his net worth at $200 million.
  Hammer made a guest appearance on a 1988 episode of The Cosby Show (as the grandfather of a friend of Theo Huxtable's who was suffering from cancer), saying that a cure for cancer was imminent.
  Hammer was leading Occidental in 1988 when its oil rig, Piper Alpha exploded killing 167 men. The Cullen Report highlighted failings in many areas on the platform. 
  As of 2016, he has been the subject of six biographies—in 1975 (Considine, authorized biography), 1985 (Bryson, coffee table book), Weinberg 1989, Blumay 1992, Epstein 1996, and Alef 2009; and two autobiographies (1932 and a best seller in 1987). His art collection and his philanthropic projects were the subject of numerous publications.
caption: Sign of the Armand Hammer Golf Course in Holmby Park in Holmby Hills, Los Angeles
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