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Michael Rockefeller disappeared without a trace near a remote island in 1961
Michael Rockefeller
Michael C. Rockefeller, Michael Clark Rockefeller
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Who is this?
Michael Clark Rockefeller (May 18, 1938; disappeared November 19, 1961) was an American anthropologist and art collector and member of the Rockefeller family. He was a son of New York Governor and later U.S. Vice President Nelson Rockefeller, a grandson of American financier John D. Rockefeller Jr., and a great-grandson of Standard Oil co-founder John D. Rockefeller Sr. In 1961, Rockefeller disappeared during an expedition in the Asmat region of southwestern Dutch New Guinea, which is now a part of the Indonesian province of South Papua, with conflicting views of his fate. Rockefeller's twin sister, Mary Rockefeller Morgan, wrote in a 2012 memoir that she believes her brother drowned. In 2014, Carl Hoffman published a book that included details from the official inquest into the disappearance, in which villagers and tribal elders stated that Rockefeller had been killed and eaten, after swimming to shore in 1961. No remains of Rockefeller or physical proof of his death have been discovered.
Career
- 1938Born
- 1961Passed away
Trivia
- •Place of birth: Manhattan
- •Citizenship: United States
- •Known as: anthropologist, photographer, explorer
What happened recently
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What Happened to Michael Rockefeller? Inside His Strange 1961 Disappearance and Rumored Cause of Death
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Ghost in the Gallery: Michael Rockefeller and the Afterlife of a Collection at The Met
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Decades After Michael C. Rockefeller Mysteriously Vanished, Questions About His 1961 Death Resurface (Exclusive)
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The Met’s new wing honors a vanished Rockefeller — who may have been kidnapped and eaten by cannibals
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Into Thin Heir: The Mysterious Disappearance and Lingering Legacy of Michael Rockefeller - Town & Country Magazine
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Disappearance in the jungle: Carl Hoffman on the vanishing of Michael Rockefeller
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Michael Rockefeller : New Guinea photographs, 1961 / [curated by] Kevin Bubriski ; foreword by Robert Gardner
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