The majority of Mr Besen’s wealth, estimated at $2.23 billion by the Financial Review Rich List, came from the sale of his Highpoint Shopping Centre in Melbourne’s western suburbs. He sold a half-share to GPT for $621 million in 2006, then a further 25 per cent, also to GPT, for $680 million in 2017.
Former Victorian premier Jeff Kennett was among the first to issue a tribute on Wednesday, hailing Mr Besen as a man who had shared his success and wealth through the arts, sciences and environment.
Mr Besen had also been a long-time philanthropist to projects in Israel, including health, science, the arts and conservation.
“Over the last few weeks, it must have been particularly sad for him to witness again war in the Middle East,” Mr Kennett said.
“For his friends and acquaintances, the community has lost perhaps one of the most humane, humble, generous individuals I have had the pleasure of knowing.”
Mr Besen’s recipe for success in women’s fashion was relatively straightforward.
“To be successful in the fashion business, you must know who your customer is and what she wants,” he told BRW Magazine in 1994.
“If you can put yourself in the customer’s shoes and offer her a product at or below the price-point she expects to pay, she will respond. After 44 years in this business, instinct tells you when that price-point has been reached. My job is to make sure our buyers and the people who run our business are on the same wavelength as our customers.”
In 1978, Marc and Eva, who passed away in 2021, established the Besen Family Foundation to centralise their philanthropy and involve the whole family in their giving.
The Foundation, which had involved all three generations, has distributed over $50 million since its establishment with a focus on arts and culture, the Jewish community, early childhood development for First Nations and recent migrants. In latter years, protection of the environment has also become a priority.
In 2000, Marc and Eva founded and built Australia’s first major privately funded public art gallery, the TarraWarra Museum of Art, which opened in the Yarra Valley in 2003. The Museum houses the Besens’ gift of their collection of 564 modernist and contemporary Australian art works.
