Downsizing - The Bel Air Way

 

Well this is good to know

America's most expensive mansion just sold

Mohamed Haddid the former owner of the Ritz Carlton Hotels was asking a mere $72 million for Le Belvedere, his 48,000 square foot pied a terre in the hills of Bel Air. The actual sale price is unknown but it had to be north of $50 million.

 

In addition to its 10 bedrooms and 14 bath rooms, the little country cottage boasts a gym, a 20 car garage, an indoor theater that seats 50

and a Moroccan room with a Turkish bath because what fine Bel Air home doesn't need that!

Hadid says he chose to sell because he is "downsizing" his life. He's also confident that the properties he builds are unique enough to lure buyers, even in a down market.

"These are very special homes. I can pretty much ask for anything I want," he says. "There are certain properties that are so unusual, people are afraid they will lose the opportunity to buy them. Even if the market is 5% or 10% below, people with substantial funds will come in and say, 'let's do this now.'"

 
Over at Drudge Millionaire's Riches are Returning to Pre-Crises Levels
Ultra-high-net-worth individuals with more than $30 million to invest saw their wealth rise by almost 22 percent in 2009, faster than other millionaires, according to the report, which attributed the gain to a “more effective re-allocation of assets.” 

It's good to know that everything is back to pre-crises status quo...except of course for the 2.3 million jobs that have been shed since 2009.

Oh Oprah - It's Good To Be The Queen

Let me come right out and say it
I don't worship at the Church of Oprah
I don't watch her program, read her magazine or recommended books
or go to her women's event, ever so popular with hollywood and hedgefund wives.

That said, I do admire Oprah
greatly

And, I couldn't be more pleased about her candor



From the Wall Street Journal Wealth Report
Oprah: It’s Great to Have a Private Jet

“It’s great to have a nice home. It’s great to have nice homes! It’s great to have a nice home that just escaped the fire in Santa Barbara,” she told the students. “It’s great to have a private jet. Anyone that tells you that having your own private jet isn’t great is lying to you.”

I love her lack of hypocrisy

The golden nugget here is the jet part. In these times of hair-shirt capitalism and envy politics, the wealthy have been going to great lengths to pretend they don’t enjoy luxury or want nice stuff. If Oprah were like most of the faux-populist rich today, she would have said something like, “I don’t need private jets, in fact I’m happier flying commercial and living in a small house. I like the simple life.” Of course, she would be lying.

I love her honesty

But she didn’t. She told the truth, which is that flying in a private jet is one of the great material perks that money can buy. (Talk to anyone who used to be rich and they will say one thing they really miss is the jet. Apparently Oprah’s ride is a $42 million custom-build Global Express XRS built by Bombardier Aerospace).

Most of all I love the way that she made it to the top all on her own.
And now she owns it
Damn...it's good to be the Queen

Financial Crisis - For Fun and Profit!

Look who's having fun in the worldwide financial crisis!
Yup, you guessed it...George Soros.

From The Mail online
'I'm having a very good crisis,' says Soros as hedge fund managers make billions off recession

A hedge fund manager who predicted the global credit crunch has said the financial crisis has been 'stimulating' and the culmination of his life's work.

I love the way Soros will bring down and entire currency or country...if it means he will profit off of it! God knows after you've earned a few billion, you just can't get enough!

Delightful, Delicious, Delovely, Dior

Une Femme and Stella's Roar have both posted on Dior this week
which is hardly surprising because the collection is stunning.

Regard

Pas mal, non?


Continuing with the Dior onslaught is this week's Wall Street Journal Magazine cover article on Bernard Arnault, the man who owns everything...or almost everything.

While the rest of the luxury goods world is cowering Monsieur Arnault is looking for opportunities. Over the last decade he focused on expanding to growth markets like China and Russia.

No doubt now he will be buying up brands as the recession drives down prices of luxe businesses.

Here's a partial list of his holdings

Groupe Arnault which has stakes in

Carrefour - the second largest retail chain after Walmart

Cheval Blanc Vineyard and Cheval Blac Hotel

and

Christian Dior SA which owns Christian Dior Couture

and LVMH which owns

fashion brands: Donna Karan, Thomas Pink, Louis Vuitton, Loewe, Celine, Berluti, Kenzo, Givenchy, Fendi, Emilio Pucci, and Marc Jacobs

stores: Le Bon Marche, Samaritane and DFS

booze: Moet & Chandon, Dom Perignon, Veuve Cliquot, Glenmorangie, Belvedere, Hennessy and Chateau D'Yquem

media: Les Echos

and lots of other stuff

I wonder how many other brands he is going to be adding to the Dior stable in the next few years?

Purely Pathological - More On Madoff

OK so much for that New Year's resolution.
I can't help but have righteous indignation when I read the news about Bernard Madoff.
Yeah, I know, I wasn't an accredited investor who had money with this creep. But I'm still pissed off that he knowingly screwed over so many people and philanthropic organizations. And he got away with it for so long.
And I'm pissed off that at least one honorable man commit suicide over his clients' losses from the ponzi scheme while Madoff continues to live in his Manhattan flat and break the law by defying court orders.

From Bloomberg
Madoff Sons Told Prosecutors of Jewelry, Lawyer Says

Madoff mailed five packages of items, including “some very valuable jewelry,” after his assets were frozen by a judge in a related civil lawsuit, said Assistant U.S. Attorney Marc Litt in court today. Defense lawyer Ira Sorkin said the objects, which included pens and $25 cuff links, were heirlooms innocently sent to Madoff’s children and brother, Peter.

I don't care if the jewelry was worth $50 or $50,000, there was a freeze on all of his assets and this guy needs to be in jail

now

Hedgefund Hypocrisy or Madoff's Maneuvers

You know that I just want to post about shopping for the holidays but one again we're dealing with Wall Street Fraud which continues to be a target rich environment.

Bernard Madoff arrested over alleged $50 billion fraud

So now we have the former head of Nasdaq....NASDAQ!!!

accused of running an investment Ponzi Scheme and racking up 50 billion dollars in losses.

50 billion dollars...seriously....this is getting close to being some real money!

On the good side...after being caught with his hand in the honey jar he's manly enough to step up and admit his culpability.

"There is no innocent explanation," Madoff said, according to the criminal complaint. He told the agents that it was all his fault, and that he "paid investors with money that wasn't there," according to the complaint.

The $50 billion allegedly lost would make the hedge fund one of the biggest frauds in history.

While I'm all for limiting the downside risk....his particular strategy for doing this might not be what you or I would do.

The fund told investors it followed a "split strike conversion" strategy, which entailed owning stock and buying and selling options to limit downside risk, said the investor, who requested anonymity.
Jon Najarian, an acquaintance of Madoff who has traded options for decades, said "Many of us questioned how that strategy could generate those kinds of returns so consistently."

This is the part of the story that I really love.

Madoff remains a member of Nasdaq OMX Group Inc's nominating committee, and his firm is a market maker for about 350 Nasdaq stocks, including Apple, EBay and Dell, according to the website.

The website also states that Madoff himself has "a personal interest in maintaining the unblemished record of value, fair-dealing, and high ethical standards that has always been the firm's hallmark."

Oh it's just so good to know that Madoff had high ethical standards.

The Ultimate Buying Experience - Reproduction For Hire

You've all heard the expression

"If it Flys, Floats, or F**ks, Lease it."

Well now you can add "If it Goes Through Labor, Rent It."

Wow, there's a lot of breeding stories in the news this week.

This is too good not to share.

From today's Wall Street Journal

Rent-a-Womb Is Where Market Logic Leads

At long last, our national love affair with the rich is coming to a close. The moguls whose exploits we used to follow with such fascination, it now seems, plowed the country into the ground precisely because of the fabulous rewards that were showered on them.
Massive inequality, we have learned, isn't the best way to run an economy after all. And when you think about it, it's also profoundly ugly.

Some people haven't received the memo, though. Take Alex Kuczynski, author of the New York Times Magazine cover story for Nov. 30, which tells how she went about hiring another woman to bear her child.

Billionaire Beauty Alex Kuczynski Buying A Baby

Somewhere along the way, Ms. Kuczynski went from observer to observed. She married a hedge-fund billionaire and in 2005 was the subject of a memorable bit of plute-worship in W magazine. Here we learned about her four homes (including one on Park Avenue and one in Southampton) but mainly about her really inaccessible spread in Idaho, where everything has to be flown in: the masseuses, the meat, the guests, the yoga instructor, the chefs, and the logs that were required to restore the property's log cabins to her husband's exacting standards.

Maybe if this young woman had been donating her eggs to buy groceries Ms. Kuczynski would have understood that all this reproduction-for-hire was a product of her billionaire-centric world as surely as the Blahniks and Versace she used to trill about

Instead she tells us, very sincerely, how much she enjoyed spending the last few months before the child arrived "by white-water rafting down Level 10 rapids on the Colorado River" -- presumably Level 10 rapids are really quality rapids -- "racing down a mountain at 60 miles per hour at ski-racing camp, drinking bourbon and going to the Super Bowl." She also does a lot of "Bikram yoga," which is presumably a really quality form of yoga.

The Strapped for Cash Surrogate Mother Barefoot and Pregnant

Surrogate motherhood has been the subject of much philosophical and political dispute over the years. To summarize briefly, it is a class-and-gender minefield. When money is exchanged for pregnancy, some believe, surrogacy comes close to organ-selling, or even baby-selling. It threatens to commodify not only babies, but women as well, putting their biological functions up for sale like so many Jimmy Choos. If surrogacy ever becomes a widely practiced market transaction, it will probably make pregnancy into just another dirty task for the working class, with wages driven down and wealthy couples hiring the work out because it's such a hassle to be pregnant.

What she doesn't tell us is even more revealing.

About Ms. Kuczynski's own feelings and fears and cravings we get paragraph after maudlin paragraph. The one who does the labor is almost completely silent.

If you want to read about the trials and tribulations of Ms. Kuczynski's baby making experiences

her New York Times article is here.

Tonight We're Gonna Party....

The bad news from Breitbart.com
Wall St financiers party like there's no tomorrow -- literally

The hedge fund dealers partied at a New York nightclub like there was no tomorrow -- which for some was probably true.

"There is no stigma now because so many people have lost jobs," she said. "The joke is that the new status symbol, instead of a Porsche or Ferrari, is having health insurance and a desk."

And as clients run for the exits, growing numbers of hedge funds have imposed emergency blocks on the ability to withdraw money.
To admirers, hedge fund traders are risk-taking, profit-hauling buccaneers who can afford to bet big because they deal only with big players.
Detractors say hedge funds embody under-regulated, over-leveraged and greed-driven business practices responsible for the US financial crisis.

"They're masking their fear," said a heavy set equities broker at Nikki Beach, who asked not to be identified, as he surveyed his colleagues, drink in hand.
"The gig's over and they're in denial. A lot of people are going to be in shock."

Good economy or bad, the hedge fund owners, aka masters of the universe, cashed out long ago....they can sit out this recession at their country estate in Greenwich or on their yacht in the

Caymans.

Diamonds Are For Disappearing

From the Times Online

Huang Guangyu, China's richest man, disappears amid corruption investigation

How does the richest man in China....or anywhere for that matter disappear?

A better question....how does bazillionaire disappear and continue to live in the style that he has grown accustomed to?

It's all about the assets.

Cash in suitcases? How much luggage can you travel with and still remain incognito?

Bearer Bonds? Do they still even exist?

Gold? How do you store it?

Diamonds? Bingo!

Something small and indestructible, easy to carry and conceal, that keeps its value and is easy to liquidate.
The ultimate asset if you want to change your world

As they say, diamonds are forever.

Maverick Mark Cuban in a Crisis

Mark Cuban - a piece or work
or just another billionaire who thinks he's above the laws that the rest of us have to abide by.

A picture of class - Mark Cuban on the dance floor

From today's Wall Street Journal

SEC Calls a Foul on NBA's Cuban, Alleges Insider Trades in Web Firm

The Securities and Exchange Commission filed civil
insider-trading charges against Mark Cuban, saying the Dallas Mavericks owner
dumped his stake in an Internet company just after he heard confidentially that
the company was about to issue low-priced shares.


In the SEC complaint against him, a witness described
how Mr. Cuban allegedly flew off the handle in June 2004 when he was told about
a proposed private offering in Mamma.com, an Internet company in which he had
taken a roughly 6% stake earlier that year. Such an offering was likely to
trigger a decline in the stock's price.

According to the complaint, Mamma.com's chief executive
emailed Mr. Cuban asking him to call as soon as possible. Mr. Cuban called four
minutes later from the arena where the Mavericks play. "Well, now I'm screwed," Mr. Cuban reportedly said.

Well I can only hope so.

Graff on a Gambol or Betting on the Billionaire Boys

Recession...What Recession?

Certainly that's the view from Larry Graff's glamorous world.

Style.com reports that London's uber jeweler to Saudis and Socialites, Graff, has just opened his flagship New York store.

Larry Graff and Stephanie Seymore aka Mrs Peter Brant

“We’ve had a record six months,”
said Laurence Graff. “Not in spite of the credit crisis but because of the
credit crisis.” He continued, spelling out the jeweler’s clearly
winning take on navigating global economic discord: “In times of chaos, you have to go back to the basics, one of which is treasure. Treasure never becomes worthless. And that’s what we sell.”

Opposite of what I read on Idex and RAP, I'm glad to know that someone out there in retail land is making big bucks with big bling.

Bailout? What Bailout? No Wall Street Woes For Investment Bankers

I've been worrying day and night about this...
Drudge just linked to a report from CBS news online today which reported that in spite of the uncertain economy, Investment Bankers from Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley and other Wall Street firms are still going to get their hefty bonuses! Thank God!
And I'm sure that none of this money could possibly come from the taxpayer funded Bailout Bucks.
Right?

Remember

The bailout package specifies that the top five executives of a company cannot get a golden parachute, but doesn't limit compensation for any other employees. Some observers, such as financial expert and reporter Stephen Gandel, say bonuses are expected to be down, but not as much as they might have been without the bailout.

According to a report from financial news agency Bloomberg, Goldman Sachs, for example, has set aside $6.8 billion for bonuses, and Morgan Stanley, $6.4 billion.

One woman in New York's financial district remarked to David, "You have people losing their houses, people on the street, they can't feed themselves, while these people are just banking on (their bonuses)."

Overall, David says, there's secrecy around how the hundreds of billions of bailout dollars are being used. The Federal Reserve Board has refused to say which banks are getting how much of the pie. And now Bloomberg is actually suing the Fed to get that information.

Looking For A Bargain?

Well it's official...it's getting tough all over. Even private jets are going on sale!

From Luxist.com

Anyone want to buy some Eclipse 500 very light jets? Now that the DayJet, air taxi operation has folded, their 28 Eclipse 500 planes are looking for a home. DayJet had originally ordered 1,400 of the small jets for their planned network of fights but closed up shop in September citing the current economic crisis and the inability to secure funding as causes. The 28 are now up for sale and are being sold "as is" with DayJet logos and interiors. The DayJet Eclipses had accumulated no more than 450 hours each. There are three different configurations of the jets. Eclipse hasn't disclosed a price for the aircraft but some have estimated that it would be in the $1.5 million range per plane.

So bargain shoppers...here's your chance to get into your own private jet for only about $1.5 million!

Boy, if this trend continues, you might be able to pick up that house in the hills and a big white diamond at bargain prices too...

The Google Boys And Their Toys

So how do you amuse yourself when your net worth is billions of dollars because you brilliantly created a business with monopoly power that let's you dominate the entire internet?
You buy toys of course, and what better toy than a your own personal Dornier Alpha fighter jet to add to your fleet of flying stock.
Let's face it, the 757's, 767's and Gulfstream V's, that you already own aren't all that fun to fly.

Dornier Alpha Jet

Of course it was only a matter of time before the Google Boys, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, bought an Alpha Jet....After all Larry Elison already has already had a fighter jet to play around with.

Observations from the New York Observer

Celerie Kemble New York Socialite Vintage Vixen

A little Thursday reading from the New York Observer



Crashion, What to Wear to the Recession.



As the Dow jigs and jags into alarming mountain peaks and valleys, fashionable New Yorkers of all stripes are considering what, exactly, those things are. Shopping as sport—collecting one $1,500, gilt-strapped It bag in three colors, for example—is suddenly seeming very 2007 (the year Lloyd Blankfein of Goldman Sachs made $67.9 million). Nowadays, shopping is an activity to be undertaken cautiously, solemnly, with an eye toward the future.


Also the past: Socialite and designer Celerie Kemble, arriving at the Food Bank event with baby girl Zinnia in tow, is one of many turning back to vintage.

(so socialite Celerie Kemble is a vintage vixen...who knew!)



“Excessive shopping is out,” said Julie Gilhart, fashion director at Barneys. “There is way too much going on in the world right now to have to take the time to think about clothes.”



Ms. Beracasa suggested repurposing a summer dress, wearing a sweater under it, “with tights, belting it, making it appropriate for fall,” rather than rushing out to buy a new frock.
“Friends that I see on a daily or weekly basis, they’ll see me in the same thing over and over again, and maybe I’ll change the shirt or the scarf or the shoe,” said stylist and gal-about-town Kate Schelter.

And Greenwich Lean Time

“The face of Greenwich has had a bit of a lift,” said James Ritman of Newmark Knight Frank, another local broker. “The height of it was probably 2006, when most of the hedge funds were here, early 2007—that summer of 2007, Greenwich Avenue was as jammed as I think anyone’s ever seen it, and stores were packed. The hedge fund guys weren’t feeling it then.”
It being the credit crisis, of course, which is still yet to affect most employees of Greenwich’s most high-profile industry on the scale of fallen investment bankers such as Lehman chief Dick Fuld, who has a house here. But hedge funds took their biggest hit in 10 years last month; the asking price for Leona Helmsley’s 80-acre estate in Greenwich’s “back country” was recently cut from $125 million to a mere $95 million; and disgraced hedge funder Michael Lauer’s 7,300-square-foot mansion was just unceremoniously auctioned off by the I.R.S. for $2.5 million, the minimum bid.
Retailers admitted that things have been quiet against this backdrop—kind of.

The big money—or rather, the big new money—started arriving about 15 years ago, strapped to the backs of the hedge funds that started staking out Greenwich. Even if the hedge fund guys couldn’t quite crack the Round Hill Club, and were often kept dangling on the brink of Greenwich Country Club, they knew how to do one thing perfectly: build massive houses. And to accommodate last-minute baubles for the wife, Greenwich rung in the new millennium with a spanking new 6600 square foot Tiffany & Co., installed in an imposing historical building. Before long, advertisements for $20,000 Patek Philipe watches appeared on the train platform. “The diamonds got bigger; that would be the number-one change,” said Mr. Betteridge. “Watches became more exotic and expensive.” (He noted that his store has, on and off, been the biggest Patek Philipe retailer in the country.)

It’s a more diverse, international crowd than you’d think, according to nearly everyone interviewed for this article; a group united only by sizable (if shrinking) bank accounts and their desire to live where rich people in America have always lived, on prime waterfront real estate a quick train ride away from our greatest city; and to do the things that rich Americans had always done, like golf and sailing and tennis, only with better handbags. They came to bathe in the WASP-y glow of the Greenwich brand—a brand so aspirational and compelling that Ralph Lauren and Michael Kors and Coach and Lacoste and all those retailers that could afford to eventually followed.

Before the hedge funds, there were CEOs of Fortune 500 companies, and before that, Rockefellers, he said. The wealth stays the same (or increases, or decreases, but stays greater than that of almost any other town in America). But what if the wealthy of Greenwich shed their showy luxuries—in order to hang on to the house—and the marquee New York stores remain empty? “Will I dance on their graves?” said Mr. Betteridge. “A jig.”

Even with all the wealth in Greenwich...I think it would be a good time to open a vintage clothing consignment store. Even a hedgefunder's wife might shop there....

Hermes Heir's Hotheaded Havoc

Question: Does being born into a famous French family and given a privileged life of luxury with a beautiful wife and adorable children, a jet setting lifestyle of galas, garden parties and polo games give Mathias Guerrand-Hermes the right to not follow the rules on a transatlantic Air France flight?

Answer: Well, apparently he thinks that has some special entitlement that allows him to act like this....

Heir To French Luxury Fashion House Hermes Accused Of Grabbing Captain's Crotch On Paris-To-NYC Flight

The court complaint says the commotion Tuesday on Air France Flight 008 began when Guerrand-Hermes sat on a female passenger's armrest and ignored orders to sit down. The crew handcuffed Guerrand-Hermes until the plane landed at John F. Kennedy International Airport.

And seriously...crotch grabbing....is that the French way to fight?

Tuesday Bailout Blues

So the bailout didn't pass and the market dropped 777 points. With all this panic in the streets I wasn't sure whether or not the sun would come up this morning..but alas it did.

Harvard Economist Jeffrey Miron, as reported by CNNpolitics.com, was against the bailout plan.

Here's some of what he wrote.

This subprime lending was more than a minor relaxation of existing credit guidelines. This lending was a wholesale abandonment of reasonable lending practices in which borrowers with poor credit characteristics got mortgages they were ill-equipped to handle.
Once housing prices declined and economic conditions worsened, defaults and delinquencies soared, leaving the industry holding large amounts of severely depreciated mortgage assets.

The fact that government bears such a huge responsibility for the current mess means any response should eliminate the conditions that created this situation in the first place, not attempt to fix bad government with more government.
The obvious alternative to a bailout is letting troubled financial institutions declare bankruptcy. Bankruptcy means that shareholders typically get wiped out and the creditors own the company.
Bankruptcy does not mean the company disappears; it is just owned by someone new (as has occurred with several airlines). Bankruptcy punishes those who took excessive risks while preserving those aspects of a businesses that remain profitable.

In contrast, a bailout transfers enormous wealth from taxpayers to those who knowingly engaged in risky subprime lending. Thus, the bailout encourages companies to take large, imprudent risks and count on getting bailed out by government. This "moral hazard" generates enormous distortions in an economy's allocation of its financial resources.

Thoughtful advocates of the bailout might concede this perspective, but they argue that a bailout is necessary to prevent economic collapse. According to this view, lenders are not making loans, even for worthy projects, because they cannot get capital. This view has a grain of truth; if the bailout does not occur, more bankruptcies are possible and credit conditions may worsen for a time.
Talk of Armageddon, however, is ridiculous scare-mongering. If financial institutions cannot make productive loans, a profit opportunity exists for someone else. This might not happen instantly, but it will happen.
Further, the current credit freeze is likely due to Wall Street's hope of a bailout; bankers will not sell their lousy assets for 20 cents on the dollar if the government might pay 30, 50, or 80 cents.
The costs of the bailout, moreover, are almost certainly being understated. The administration's claim is that many mortgage assets are merely illiquid, not truly worthless, implying taxpayers will recoup much of their $700 billion.
If these assets are worth something, however, private parties should want to buy them, and they would do so if the owners would accept fair market value. Far more likely is that current owners have brushed under the rug how little their assets are worth.

So what should the government do? Eliminate those policies that generated the current mess. This means, at a general level, abandoning the goal of home ownership independent of ability to pay. This means, in particular, getting rid of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, along with policies like the Community Reinvestment Act that pressure banks into subprime lending.
The right view of the financial mess is that an enormous fraction of subprime lending should never have occurred in the first place. Someone has to pay for that. That someone should not be, and does not need to be, the U.S. taxpayer.

This echos what Rep. Kaptur said in her speech to the House. Wall Street billionaires keep their gains...yet shift their losses to the taxpayer.

In the end, I think that some measure of of a bailout will pass.

A Tale Of Two Cities- London and New York

The Golden Calf by Damian Hirst sold for $18.6 million

New York

Well it's been a roller coaster week in the stock market with the bankruptcy or Lehman Brothers, the bailout of AIG, and continued uncertainty about Washington Mutual, Morgan Stanley and other firms with shaky financials. The SEC has issued a temporary ban against short selling of financial stocks. Long term Lehman employees with mortgages, college tuition's, and basic family living expenses to pay, are now unemployed. Individual investors who had only recently recouped what they had lost in the market crash of 2001, have seen the the value of their investments seriously eroded

London

Meanwhile, this week Contemporary artist Damian Hirst, rumored to be worth a billion dollars, is now some $172 million richer after Sotheby's two day sale of his new works. Lots were sold to Gagosian and White Cube galleries and Russian gazillionaires.

According to the Wall Street Journal:

But the biggest spender -- bidding over the telephone and said by industry insiders to be Christie's owner, the keen Hirst collector Francois Pinault -- paid £13.2 million for three lots. The most expensive, "The Golden Calf," a 20-ton calf with 18-karat-gold hooves and horns in a formaldehyde glass tank, was perhaps the most symbolic work in the sale, representing as it does the idolatrous worship of money. (Note the exquisite irony of this particular work selling for 18.6 million)

And a description of who was at the auction from the Times Online:

But inside the saleroom the drama was palpable - the art auction as high-risk spectator sport. Sir Norman Rosenthal, until recently the exhibitions secretary at the Royal Academy and one of the men who helped to make Hirst’s reputation, was among the onlookers, along with sundry hedge fund managers in open-neck shirts and haughty-looking younger women with big hair and expensive facial features.

While I find the work of Damian Hirst interesting, I can't understand why "The Kingdom", a tiger shark suspended in formaldehyde, could justify a price of $17.2 million.

Is Contemporary Art a con?

One comment that I read referring to this sale is "There is no Contemporary Art, there is only marketing". I couldn't have said it better myself.

The Russian Riviera

Villefrance sur Mer

Are Russian Oligarchs the New Saudi Princes?

From the 19th Century through the early 20th Century Russian Royalty flocked to the French Riviera. And why not, what better place was there for a social season in the sun away from the dreary cold of Russian Court.

And now, the Oligarchs want their place in the sun too.

An unnamed Russian Oligarch just purchased Lilly Safra's Villefrance villa L:a Leopolda, once owned by King Leopold of Belgium, for 500 million Euro ($750 million) !!

From the Times Online

Jean Pierre, a high-end agent, said: “It's completely surreal and we are really uneasy. We don't dare any more to propose any price below €100 million for these clients. Anything below and they throw you out...and you should see how they do it,” he told Le Parisien. The Nice Matin newspaper said: “At this price tag, we are beyond luxury and even reality.”

Russian excess is feeding discontent among poorer people. Pierrette, a housekeeper for one Russian, said: “I attended a party where the guests had fun throwing burning €500 notes into the air while everyone split their sides laughing. The domestic staff were later told to collect the ashes. It was sickening.”

Until the Revolution there was a Russian Aristocracy, a small percentage of the population who controlled all the wealth in Russian and was served by a huge Russian peasantry of serfs. In the long decades of the Soviet Union there was the Nomenklatura, an aristocracy of sorts, that controlled access and assets. Now we have the Oligarchs, a small group who controls the massive wealth from the ownership and distribution of natural resources, particularly in diamonds and oil.

So as the the ostentatious Oligarchs buy up the best and Vladamir Putin cheers on the team at the Olympics, Russia attacks Georgia over control of oil distribution leaving thousands wounded.

Move on...nothing to see here.....just more oil wealth for the few.....

Downsizing the Holmby Hills Way

The Spelling Residence - "The Manor"

With inflation going through the roof and the monthly cost of household utilities equal to about the cost of a small car, what's a Holmby Hills heiress to do? Well downsize, of course. Which is just what Candy Spelling is doing.

Mrs. Spelling, who owns the largest house in Los Angeles a 123 room - 56,500 square foot mansion has just purchased a little 16,500 square foot pied-a-terre in Century City for a reasonable $47 million or $2,848 per square foot.

It is hard to compare the new and old. Spelling's current home has 11 bedrooms and 16 bathrooms, and then there's the one-lane bowling alley, the gift-wrapping room, a screening room and a doll museum. But what's in store for her new digs is still a question that may tantalize the curious.

I'm sure that the new pad will be magnificent with its 360 views....but personally, I'd rather have the view from the Koenig Case Study House 21.