Mr. Gregorian will replace David A. Hamburg, a 71-year-old educator and scientist, as head of the New York-based foundation.

The New York-based foundation was set up in 1997 to fund programs in the performing arts, medical research and the environment.

The New York-based foundation released its study May 11 at the National Press Club in Washington.

The New York-based foundation is financed by Boris A. Berezovsky, a Russian living in political asylum in Britain.

He lists his occupation as philanthropist and spends much of time managing the affairs of the New York-based foundation, which has set a goal of "inspiring a renaissance of Jewish life."

The New York-based foundation was established in 1963 by Mrs. Giles Whiting, who at her death in 1971 left it an unrestricted bequest of more than $10 million.

"This is obscene," said Maureen Aung-Thwin, director of the Burma Project at the Open Society Institute, a New York-based foundation pushing for democracy in Myanmar.

Mrs. Luce, who is 82 years old, lives in Washington and has no connection with the New York-based foundation.

Now, as this New York-based foundation is approaching its 75th anniversary, it is starting a program to encourage institutions to explain the origins of European art in imaginative ways.

Going digital, however, can be expensive, and colleges began turning to Mellon, a wealthy New York-based foundation that emphasizes higher education and art, for help.