Arab

World's Most Expensive Penthouse Sells for $308 Million in Monaco

Barely a month after we reported that a London penthouse had sold for $220 million, making it the world's most expensive private residence, the record has been shattered with the $308 million sale of a palatial penthouse in Monaco (above). The Monaco property, called La Belle Epoque, has quite a history; formerly the home of billionaire banker Edmund Safra, it's where he was found dead following a mysterious fire that gutted the apartment in 1999. The three-bedroom, 17,500-sq-.ft. duplex penthouse, which includes a double-height library and vast roof terraces complete with mature 15-foot trees and an infinity pool, is thought to have been purchased by an Arab sheikh, the Economic Times reports.

The apartment's luxe features include a panic room with reinforced glass and surveillance cameras, cinema screens which emerge from walls at the touch of a button, numerous walk-in wardrobes and dressing rooms, a leisure room with billiard tables and arcade video games, a Jacuzzi and spa, and a media room with special executive chairs which convert into beds. The penthouse was sold by British property developers Christian and Nick Candy, who acquired the space relatively cheaply following the fire from Lily Safra and hired designer Martin Kemp to oversee $40 million in renovations, including a dining room (above) with a platinum leaf ceiling.

Gallery: $308 Million in Monaco

Tags: Arab, Candy Brothers, Edmund Safra, Lily Safra, London, Monaco, penthouse, worlds most expensive

Arab Playboys Arrested After Supercar Smash in London

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Wealth, Crimes and Misdemeanors

Yesterday we reported that a cabal of mega-rich Arab playboys have made London the world's supercar capital this summer, shipping an estimated $80 million worth of eye-popping vehicles to the city while waiting out the heat in their homeland. With all the ultra-luxe vehicles racing around the crowded city, something was bound to go wrong, and it has; two of the fast-living fellows were arrested in Knightsbridge the other day after plowing their $280,000 Lamborghini into four other vehicles, the London Daily Mail reports. Abdulla Saeed Khalfan Al-Dhaheri, 28, and Sultan Khalifa Al-Muhairbi, 35, both from the United Arab Emirates, were taken into custody after their Lamborghini Murcielago smashed into the parked cars, flipping a BMW over completely.

Luckily no one was injured, but Al-Muhairbi was charged with dangerous driving and driving with no insurance and Al-Dhaheri was charged with perverting the course of justice. The men, who are due to appear in court on October 12, are said to have walked away from the pile-up, telling a passerby, "It's all right, we'll pay for the damage." The incident took place in posh Lowndes Square, home to some of the city's wealthiest residents, including Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich. Check out an image gallery of some of the Arab-owned supercars, including Rolls-Royce, Ferrari and Bugatti models, which have been flown to London for the summer from the UAE after the jump.

Tags: Arab, car crash, Ferrari, Knightsbridge, Lamborghini, London, Rolls-Royce, Roman Abramovich, supercar, UAE, UK, United Arab Emirates, wealth

Continue reading “Arab Playboys Arrested After Supercar Smash in London”

Arab Playboys Ship $80 Million Worth of Supercars to London for the Summer

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Wealth, Crimes and Misdemeanors, Video

A cabal of mega-rich Arab playboys have made London the world's supercar capital this summer, shipping an estimated $80 million worth of eye-popping vehicles to the city while waiting out the heat in their homeland. The bored billionaires get their kicks by racing around London's crowded streets, the London Sun reports. Bugatti Veyrons have been seen cruising in Knightsbridge and Mayfair, and both the Bugatti a Pagani Zonda Cinque, one of only five in the world, are often parked at the Dorchester Hotel where some of the super-rich studs are staying. Rolls-Royces, custom Mercedes-McLaren SLRs, Lamborghinis, Koenigseggs, Ferraris and more are commonplace in certain posh neighborhoods.

"Forget Monaco or Monte Carlo - London is now the supercar capital," Matt Master of Top Gear tells the paper. "Most owners are in their 20s or early 30s and from amazingly rich families. The amount of Ferraris, Lamborghinis and Bugattis with UAE plates is unbelievable." Most do 200 mph-plus but they have to drive them around in first gear, though some cut loose and take the consequences – check out a video of one man being pulled over in a pink Lamborghini amidst a number of other exotics after the jump. Others like the supercars belonging to Qatar's Royal Family get "clamped" by the cops. Given the fact that the cars had to be flown to London from the UAE, the sheer amount of money being wasted is simply stupendous:

Tags: Arab, Arabs, Bugatti, Ferrari, Koenigsegg, Lamborghini, London, Mayfair, Pagani, Qatar, Rolls-Royce, supercars, UAE, wealth

Continue reading “Arab Playboys Ship $80 Million Worth of Supercars to London for the Summer”

Christie's and Sotheby's on the Upswing (Sorta)

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Auctions, Art

Don't call it a comeback ... well, because the bar's been lowered. At the post-war and contemporary art sales last Friday, both Christie's and Sotheby's nearly hit the high end of presale estimates. This marks a distinct turn from earlier this year, when the auction houses couldn't even reach the lowest ends of reduced expectations. Any comparison to last year is made difficult by the fact that both houses combined their auctions with Italian art sales. So, they open with "close to the top end of the range" and can't really be evaluated on anything else.

Values for the pieces are off -- that's pretty well known (especially to anyone trying to sell right now). Sotheby's brought in $32.8 million at the sale -- which also had Arab and Iranian art on top of the contemporary and Italian lots. Christie's picked up $27.7 million, with more U.S. buyers than expected.

We're again seeing an engineered reality that's driven by performance relative to presale estimates -- this is all the hint we nee to know that the art market is still pretty far from recovery. But, as we know, it could have been much worse. Hell, we saw how bad it could be for most of this year.

Source

Tags: arab, art, art auction, art auctions, art market, ArtAuction, ArtAuctions, artist, artists, ArtMarket, artwork, auction house, auction houses, AuctionHouse, AuctionHouses, auctions, christies, iranian, italian, italian art, ItalianArt, sothebys

Carla Bruni Sells Family Castle to Sheikh for $12 Million

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the sexy supermodel, singer and first lady of France, has sold her family's castle in Italy (above) to an Arab sheikh for about $12 million, the London Daily Mail reports. The 40-room Castello di Castagneto Po, near Turin, has been repeatedly destroyed and rebuilt over the years but is believed to first date from the year 1019. Bruni's father, the billionaire industrialist Alberto Bruni Tedeschi, bought the castle-style mansion in 1952 for about $1.5 million. The contents of the house, include furniture and antiques, were auctioned off in London for another $13 million. The Italian-born Bruni married French President Nicolas Sarkozy last year and has renounced her ties to Italy. "We had finished with Castagneto Po – nobody went there any more," her mother Marisa Bruni Tedeschi, the castle's co-owner, tells the AFP.

Tags: Arab, Carla Bruni, CarlaBruni, Castle, France, Italy, nicolas sarkozy, NicolasSarkozy, Sheikh, Turin