Most Americans haven’t heard of them because they deliberately place their name only on those institutions frequented most by the top 10% of American society: museum wings, departments and endowed chairs at name-brand universities, highbrow theatres and auditoriums, etc.
If you’re the type of American whose opinion counts (i.e. educated with a lot of discretionary income), chances are you’ve run into the name frequently throughout the English-speaking world over the course of your life. That, along with divorcing the family name from the source of its wealth, is what they’re paying for.
