If the fears of hyperinflation are realized, you'll look back with pride on your luxury purchases. All that money you've sunk into custom jewelry and top-of-the-line stones will make you look like an absolute genius. Well, that's the position of South African billionaire Johann Rupert, and I'd take the advice of a guy who can be described that way.

According to Bloomberg News, the told investors, "If we enter hyperinflation, you're going to be so glad that you bought that stuff two months or six months ago." He added, "If inflation picks up, you're going to see people running into your stores, buying high jewelry."

Will inflation cause a mob to form outside the Cartier store on Fifth Avenue? Well, I don't think I'd worry too much about the pushing and shoving, but being ready to throw an elbow probably isn't a bad idea.

Of course, Rupert has something to gain – his company, Richemont, is the world's second largest luxury goods maker (behind LVMH). In his talk with investors in the company controlled by his family, he forecasted "normal growth" with luxury sales showing signs of recovery this month and next.

Ukraine is about to get a new contemporary art center. Victor Pinchuk is shooting to make Kiev a major art destination, so the wealthy art collector is creating a new center that will be larger than the existing PinchukArtCentre, which was the first private contemporary art center in the former Soviet Union and has had more than 830,000 visitors since its doors swung open in 2006.

Pinchuk, a steel billionaire, is an avid collector, with pieces by Jeff Koons, Damien Hirst and Andreas Gursky. His new endeavor, he tells Bloomberg News, "will make Kiev and Ukraine a fantastic place for contemporary art." Pinchuk made the proclamation at a show for 20 Ukrainian artists who were nominated for the first Pinchuk Art Center Prize, which comes with a cash component of $12,200 and a one-month internship with an artist from the international scene. Hirst himself will announce the winner on December 4, 2009.

Pinchuk has a strong relationship with the artist celebrity and owns "probably half" of the skull paintings (by the collector's own estimation) in the current Hirst show at the Wallace Collection in London. He also participated in Hirst's solo auction in September 2008 but wouldn't tell what he bought.

Back in February we reported that Carla Bruni-Sarkozy, the sexy supermodel, singer and first lady of France, had sold her family's castle in Italy (above) to an Arab sheikh. Now the buyer, who has since been revealed as billionaire Saudi businessman Prince Alwaleed bin Talal, has relisted the historic castle with an affiliate of Christie's Great Estates with a reported asking price of about $28 million; he was said to have originally paid anywhere from $12 million - $25 million depending on sources. The 40-room, 21,000-sq.-ft. 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 historic estate in 1952 for about $1.5 million. It is surrounded by 175 acres replete with vegetable gardens, orchards, flowering terraces, ancient greenhouses, a caretaker's house and a farm building.

Collectors are looking and thinking. They might take action, but it's still too soon to tell. The action at Foire Internationale d'Art Contemporain (FIAC) in Paris is deliberate: nobody's rushing to put their cash on the table. However, there are signs that some pricey and prestigious pieces may sell.

Last week, a painting by Piet Mondrian was put on reserve, at a price between $30 million and $40 million. One of Pablo Picasso's works was reserved, as well, at $24 million. Back in the art boom, these pieces would have been snapped up already, but dealers are saying that it's taking longer to complete sales at FIAC this year than last year. Even billionaires need convincing in this market, it seems.

Also, there's a greater desire to stay under the radar. Whether it's to maintain some privacy or hide the fact that they have the means to spend more than they like, some owners and buyers are turning to private sales. Bargains, thus, won't make it into the public record – sparing sellers the embarrassment and preventing the other holdings of all collectors from sustaining a measurable decline in value. If premiums are paid, buyers won't have to reveal that they have the cash to pay more, preventing prices from increasing broadly.

The latest trend for billionaires around the world seems to be not raises but showy pay cuts. Bloomberg reports that India's Mukesh Ambani, Asia's richest man, took a 66 percent pay cut to "set a personal example of moderation" after a government call for austerity, thereby reducing his salary before he was asked to do so. Ambani, who is the chairman of Reliance Industries Ltd., will still take home what works out to around $3.3 million in salary plus his family, which owns 49 percent of the company, gets around $216 million in dividends. His younger brother, Anil Ambani is also giving up salary and commission from the five companies he owns. Mukesh Ambani is famous for his extravagance. He is currently building what will be the world's most lavish home, a $2 billion 27-story skyscraper and in 2007 he bought his wife and Airbus 319 plane for her birthday.

Billionaire George Soros has made a big move for climate change. Recently in Copenhagen he announced that he will commit more than $1 billion of his estimated $13 billion fortune to clean energy investments and political efforts which help to benefit the environment. The money could help startups with an eco focus get much needed money to go forward at a time when venture capital is at a major low. Analysts say that Soros will likely focus on "mezzanine" investments helping relatively mature startups with some proven success get to the next level. Soros is a savvy investor and this isn't strictly an altruistic move. He says that he is looking for opportunities that will be both profitable and "make a real contribution to solving the problem of climate change." Soros also pledged $100 million over a 10-year period to the Climate Policy Initiative, a foundation created "to protect the public interest against special interests."

It's hard not to be a little envious of Alki David not only is he an actor and producer with roles in films like "The Bank Job" but he is also a billionaire heir to a shipping and bottling plant fortune. David, who has homes in Greece and Switzerland as well as several homes in England is looking to sell his Hampstead home. He and his wife are separating and in the Daily Mail he describes the seven-bedroom home, which he bought last year for £12.5 million, as "a mistake." As soon as the divorce is final the house will be sold. But his method of selling is a bit different, he plans to offer three agents two months to sell the house. The winner takes home a fixed commission, if it doesn't sell, he'll rent it out. A move from a man who clearly doesn't need the immediate influx of cash.

He will move into his £4 million property which has received an £800,000 renovation. Meanwhile, he is living in a two-bedroom flat in Knightsbridge bought two years ago for £1.8million which will give his soon-to-be ex-wife. He plans to expand his latest venture, online media company FilmOn, into the U.S. and is ready to capitalize on the lower prices in Los Angeles and pick up a new mansion there. But for tax purposes his main residence is Cyprus. He also owns a record label, modeling agency and founded the not-for-profit organization, BIOS which works on marine conservation in Greece.

Art Moscow features works from 40 galleries – both from Russia and around the world. Originally, the art fair was supposed to run in May, but Expo Park Exhibition Projects Ltd., its organizer, pushed it back to hit at the same time as the state run Third Moscow Biennale of Contemporary Art. The dual event may bring a bigger turnout, but it will have to overcome a 10 percent contraction in the Russian economy.

Counting against Art Moscow ... aside from general economic malaise ... is the fact that the sale of Russian artwork is down. The major auction houses in London moved only $48 million in Russian art in June, down more than half from the same auctions in 2008.

So, how likely is a stream of cash? Igor Markin, a big-time collector and owner of the Art4.ru museum, says he "hasn't bought anything in a long time."

One of Australia's richest men is proving that extravagant gifts have not gone out of style. Australia's fifth richest man reportedly picked up a 98-foot yacht at a marine auction at Brisbane's Rivergate Marina. The yacht, which cost $5.3 million Australian is said to be a give for his 15-year-old daughter, Emily. Palmer is the owner of the company, Mineralogy Pty Ltd. which mines iron ore in Western Australia. He owns the team Gold Coast United FC. He has three children and owns homes in Brisbane, Perth and Beijing as well as having three private jets and two helicopters. After 22 years of marriage his wife died of cancer spurring him to set up a charitable foundation to fund medical research. He has since remarried.

Based on information from Rivergate Marina it looks like the Horizon 98 foot yacht was sold in a receivership situation. The yacht was built in 2008 and has master and VIP staterooms with ensuites, two double cabins and accommodations for four crew. Listing pics in the gallery below and YouTube video after the jump.

Despite the large flushing sound that's accompanied the art market this year, there are still 10 collectors worth noting. In fact, ARTnews was even able to cobble together a top 200 list this year (if they went to 300, I figure I'd wind up on the list, too, given the state of the art market right now). The names in the top 10 still represent the art collecting elite, they just happen to be in much worse shape than they were at this time last year.

Roman Abramovich, Russian billionaire and art addict, takes the #1 spot. It would be easy to zero in on any one of several purchases last year and call it "defining," but the man spent a few hundred million on art. The most expensive pickup was a Francis Bacon triptych which set him back almost $90 million.

Top 10 Art Collectors (according to ARTnews):

1. Roman Abramovich
2. Debra and Leon Black
3. Edythe L. and Eli Broad
4. Steven Cohen
5. Marie-Josee and Henry Kravis
6. Jo Carole and Ronald S. Lauder
7. Francois Pinault
8. Mitchell Rales
9. Carlos Slim Helu
10. Sheikh Saud bin Mohammed bin Ali al-Thani

Okay, so you take a quick look at this list and realize that Abramovich, who requested a bailout from the Russian government, isn't the only flawed personality it contains. Steven A. Cohen, the Connecticut-based hedge fund manager, owns a dead rotting shark. While Damien Hirst's ego is built to last, his creations are more like personal computers ... planned obsolescence. Kravis, who sits atop esteemed and powerful private equity firm KKR, was not left unscathed by the current financial crisis. The precipitous drop in oil prices over the past year must have left the sheikh in a rough spot, and Slim thought he could make money by investing in a newspaper (that's just fucking stupid ... almost as stupid as paying $90 million for a 1970s Bacon, frankly).

Maybe we'll see some changes over the next year. I wouldn't mind writing about an unknown visionary busting into the winners circle at this time next summer. Now, all we have to do is find one.

Billionaire Chuck Feeney is in the news again with another big donation. He has pledged more than $100 million Australian to the Queensland Institute of Medical Research in Queensland, Australia. The money will be used to help fund three major new research institutes and hopefully attract more top scientists to Brisbane. Feeney's Atlantic Philanthropies has donated more than $270 million to Queensland scientific and medical research over the past decade.

Why would and Irish-American philanthropist be giving away big money in Australia? Feeney is quoted in Australia's Courier Mail as saying that when he visited Queensland he found a "lot of people worthy of support and not getting it and I was pleased to help." He is hoping that the work he funds in Queensland can improve health around the globe. Projects said to be on tap include researching breast cancer susceptibility genes and the genetic risk of schizophrenia, as well as funding clinical trials of a new malaria vaccine. Ian Frazer, the inventor of the cervical cancer vaccine, is behind the Translational Research Institute at Princess Alexandra Hospital, one of the institutes that Feeney is funding and the amount of scientists in the area has been on the rise. Frazer is currently at work on a skin cancer vaccine.

The Los Angeles Business Journal has just come out with its list of the 50 Wealthiest Angelenos, noting they've suffered their worst year on record with a collective loss of over $32 billion. Los Angeles now has just 29 billionaires, the lowest total in five years. 41 out of the 50 people on last year's list lost at least $100 million each, while eight of them lost over $1 billion.

MGM Mirage investor Kirk Kerkorian, who held the top position for the past three years, lost half his fortune as tourism in Las Vegas dropped dramatically; he still has $5.3 billion and is only down to No. 3 however. Movie mogul Sumner Redstone, shown at right, lost over $5 billion as well and tumbled from No. 2 to No. 14. The new No. 1 is former surgeon Patrick Soon-Shiong, who sold his pharmaceutical company earning a $3 billion windfall and pushing his total net worth to $6 billion.

"Russian" and "art" together used to mean "stratospheric prices paid." Not any more. Last week's Russian art auction results at Christie's and Sotheby''s showed the difference a year can make. Last year, the two houses brought in $64 million at the New York-based annual ritual. This year, the final take was only $27 million.

At the Christie's auction, the top-selling piece was Svetoslav Roerich's "Portrait of Nicholas Roerich in a Tibetan Robe" for $2.9 million – thus accounting for more than 10 percent of both houses' sales. It set a record for works by Roerich. The next best was by Nicholas Roerich himself. "The Greatest and Holiest of Tangla," a landscape of Tibetan snowcaps, brought in $1.4 million.

Efforts to repatriate Russian art, of which I first learned from Annika Larres at the Bukowskis auction house in Helsinki, seem to have slowed, due in large part to the loss of so many Russian billionaires over the past twelve months.

Overall, Christie's moved 69 percent of the 390 lots available for $13.2 million. The father/son Roerich team accounted for a third of that. The Sotheby's auction, last Wednesday, was good for $13.8 million, compared to $46.5 million in 2008.

Billionaire David Murdock has owned most of Hawaii's Lanai Island since 1985 and his decisions to add luxury hotels and high-end real estate have caused controversy in the past changing what was once a pineapple plantation into a tourist destination. But as Bloomberg reports, his newest vision for Lanai is generating a lot of concern.

He is planning a $750 million power project that calls for 200 wind turbines to be placed next to Polihua Beach, an idyllic stretch of white sand. Castle & Cooke, Murdock's company, will send the windmill-generated electricity to Honolulu through underwater cables. The project will generate revenue for Murdock who has lost money on Lanai in recent months as real estate and tourism have faded.

Like the windmill project that is planned for Nantucket Sound in the Atlantic, this one has angered those who fear that windmills will take away from the area's natural beauty. The project is currently pending government approvals, including environmental clearance. It is expected that the approvals could be in places by late 2011 and could help Hawaii reach its goal of being 70 percent green by 2030.

My colleague Deidre Woollard just reported that the number of millionaire households in the U.S. has shrunk to its lowest level since 2003. To that we can now add that the number of billionaires in the world has also seen a steep decline.

According to Forbes' newly-released annual list of the world's billionaires, there are now only 793 billionaires around the globe, down from 1,125 a year ago. That means 332 people lost their billionaire status.

This year the exclusive group has an average net worth of $3 billion, down 23% in 12 months, making for a loss of some $1.4 trillion. Americans now account for 44% of the money and 45% of the list's slots, up 7 and 3 percentage points from last year, respectively. Some billionaires have fared better than others, though most have lost masses of money.

Bill Gates lost $18 billion but regained his title as the world's richest man with a $40 billion fortune. Warren Buffett, last year's No. 1, saw his fortune decline $25 billion as shares of Berkshire Hathaway fell nearly 50% in 12 months, and is in the No. 2 slot with $37 billion. Mexican telecom titan Carlos Slim Helú maintains his spot in the top three but lost $25 billion, and is now worth $35 billion.