Playboy

Playboy Art Sale Brings In $2.9 Million

The sale of part of Playboy's substantial art archive took place Wednesday night at Christie's New York on December 8 in an auction titled "The Year of the Rabbit." The 125-piece offering including Dali watercolor of a reclining nude that hung in Hugh Hefner's bedroom as well as 80 photographs, many of which appeared in the magazine and more than a dozen contemporary works and 24 cartoons.

The expected top lot was an oil painting of of a scarlet-lipstick mouth by pop artist Tom Wesselmann. "Mouth No. 8" sold for nearly $1.9 million against estimates of $2 million to $3 million. The Dali watercolor sold for more than $266,000 beating estimates of $100,000 to $150,000. The sale brought in a total of $2,903,437 (including buyer's premium). Herb Ritts photographs of Stephanie Seymour, Cindy Crawford and Elle MacPherson also sold well. A Herb Davidson portrait of Hef himself sold for $6,000 against the estimate of $5,000 - $7,000.

This is the second time Christie's has sold items from Playboy. Playboy celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2003 with an auction of memorabilia and ephemera from Playboy's collection. The art represents just a small amount of the Playboy Art Collection which has an archive of 5,000 contemporary artworks and more than 20 million photographs.

Tags: herb ritts, hugh hefner playboy activist and rebel, playboy, Playboy Magazine, playboy mansion, Salvador Dal, tom wesselmann

Flavio Briatore to Open "Billionaire's Square" in Dubai

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Travel & Hotels, Real Estate Developments, Wealth

Italian playboy Flavio Briatore, (above, with his much younger lingerie model wife Elisabetta), has signed a deal to open a new Billionaire's Square complex in Dubai catering to those with unapologetically extravagant tastes. Building on the success of Briatore's Billionaire club for the super-rich on Sardinia's swank Costa Smeralda, the $150 million Billionaire's Square development will be constructed on the site of Dubai Media City's Palladium entertainment venue. The complex will include a boutique luxury hotel, a Billionaire Bar and Grill along with several other restaurants and bars, a VIP fitness club and a boutique selling items from Briatore's ostentatious Billionaire Couture line, maker of items like a $50,000 crocodile skin umbrella. The project is expected to be completed by the end of 2011. As my colleague Deirdre Woollard reported last year, Briatore's colorful career as a Formula 1 impresario linked to supermodels like Heidi Klum and Naomi Campbell came to an end in the wake of a race fixing scandal.

Source

Tags: billionaire, Dubai, Flavio Briatore, Formula 1, luxury hotels, playboy, Sardinia, UAE, wealth

Macanudo & Playboy Launch $2 Million Vegas Contest

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars, Events, Wealth

Macanudo, America's number-one-selling premium cigar brand, is teaming up with Playboy to launch the Macanudo Millionaire contest, offering a shot at winning a cool $2 million in Las Vegas while surrounded by some of the world's sexiest women. Consumers of legal smoking age can visit their favorite U.S. tobacco shop between now and August 31 to purchase a specially-marked four-pack containing Macanudo Café, Maduro, Robust and Gold Label premium cigars. On the pack are details about how to enter the contest via brief essays expressing a desire to win the trip to the strip and the chance at the $2 million prize (you can also enter the contest just by visiting macanudomillionaire.com). Two lucky winners and their guests will get an all-expense paid, three-day, two night trip to the Palms Hotel and Casino in Vegas. While in Sin City, they will be treated to a VIP evening at the Playboy Club at the Palms, where they will be accompanied by three Playboy Playmates who will stand in for Lady Luck when the contestants and their guests are dealt a hand of poker. If either the contestants or their guests receive a straight flush, they will win the $2,000,000 prize. Click here to see the official rules.

Tags: cigar, cigars, contests, gambling, Las Vegas, Macanudo, Playboy, Playboy Club, Playboy Playmates, poker

Gianni Agnelli's Classic Yacht for Sale at $1.8 Million

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Yachts & Sailing, Men's Style

Fiat chairman Gianni Agnelli, who died in 2003 at the age of 81, was one of the most stylish men who ever walked the Earth. An avid playboy and racecar driver (Fiat of course owns Ferrari), Agnelli was also a keen yachtsman, and enjoyed many years of sailing his Knut Reimer-designed 82-ft. yawl Agneta with its distinctive port-wine colored sails and superb varnished hull, built in 1948. Now the stylish yacht with its restored Burmese teak deck has been listed for sale in France via global online luxury marketplace JamesList for about $1.8 million.

A regular on the on the Mediterranean Classic Yacht regatta racing circuit, the Agneta's spacious owner's stateroom features a marble fireplace and en-suite bath suitable for an elegant gentleman, while interiors are fitted with polished paneling and exotic inlays. We don't know for certain but can speculate that Agnelli, whose estate was worth $4.4 billion, entertained famed female companions like Anita Ekberg, Rita Hayworth and (rumored) Jackie Onassis aboard the beautiful boat.

Gallery: Gianni Agnelli's Agneta

Tags: classic yacht, Ferrari, Fiat, Gianni Agnelli, Italy, JamesList, Mediterranean, playboy, sailing, sailing yacht, wooden boat, yacht

Playboy Mansion Chicago Condo,Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates

Her'es where it all began, the first Playboy mansion on Chicago's Gold Coast, where you can now buy a condo that is up for sale. The Victorian-style mansion was built back in 1903 and designed by James Gamble Rogers for surgeon George Snow Isham. Playboy founder Hugh Hefner turned the home into the first Playboy mansion and used it for parties and events from 1959 until the mid-1970s when he decamped for Los Angeles. The company later leased the mansion to the Art Institute for student housing and in 1989 it was donated to the museum. But as Hef has found with his Holmby Hills mansion, upkeep is expensive. Struggling under the burden, the Art Institute sold it to developer Bruce Abrams in 1993. Abrams gutted the home and renovated it into seven separate units. Today's home is the only unit in the building that leads out to the property's garden and it has a private patio. The three-bedroom 3,900-square-foot unit has beautiful architectural details like ornate moldings, built-in shelving and curved archways. This slice of Playboy history is listed at $2.9 million.

[via Chicago Tribune]

Gallery: Chicago's Playboy Mansion Condo

Tags: chicago, condo, estate of the day, gold coast, hugh hefner, playboy

Continue reading “Playboy Mansion Chicago Condo,Estate of the Day”

Hugh Hefner Saves Hollywood

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Real Estate Developments

There's joy in Hollywood tonight, the 138 acres behind the Hollywood sign will go into a public land trust. The hotly contested land on Cahuenga Peak is zoned for luxury homes and there was fear that it would be sold to developers if $12.5 million wasn't raised to buy and protect the land. And here's where good old Hugh steps in. Playboy magazine founder Hugh Hefner made a $900,000 donation at the last minute so that the conservation group "Trust for Public Land" could buy the land. California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger said that Hefner was the final donor. Schwarzenegger was quoted in the LA Times praising the donation and result as "the Hollywood ending we hoped for."

Hefner released a statement calling the Hollywood sign Hollywood's Eiffel Tower and "an important cultural landmark." Other donations came from Arianne Getty, Tiffany & Co. jewelers, Steven Spielberg and Tom Hanks. The sign itself is owned by Los Angeles but the land behind it belonged to investors who could have sold the rights to build four luxury mansions along the ridgeline for a tidy fortune (they were hoping for $22 million). The land will now be become part of the 4,200-acre Griffith Park sprawl. Recently the conservation group covered the Hollywood sign so that it instead read "Save the Peak."

Tags: arnold schwarzenegger, cahuenga, hollywood sign, hugh hefner, playboy, save the peak

Mad Men Star Designs A Playboy Couch

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Mad Men costume designer Janie Bryant created classically inspired suits for Brooks Brothers. Now Mad Men star and interior designer Bryan Batt has teamed up with Playboy Enterprises to create a loveseat that pays homage to early 1960s style. "The Hef" is a limited-edition loveseat designed to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Playboy Clubs. The loveseat is hand signed by Playboy Founder, Editor-in-Chief and Chief Creative Officer Hugh M. Hefner and was designed by Batt and manufactured by Brownstone furniture.

It was unveiled at the Las Vegas Market trade show at World Market Center by Batt and several Playboy Club Bunnies. "The Hef" will remain on display for the duration of the show until Friday. The loveseat has gray mohair upholstery, nail head detailing and rosewood side panels and will be in limited production, with only 50 pieces available for sale. It will retail through Batt's New Orleans store Hazelnut New Orleans for $15,000.

Tags: brian batt, BrianBatt, hugh hefner, HughHefner, mad men, MadMen, playboy

The Cheekiest Book of the Year

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Books

Luxist readers last heard of famed Scottish photographer Rankin when his bespoke bottle for The Macallan single malt Scotch debuted. Now the shutterbug has released a new volume of edgy erotica appropriately titled Rankin's Cheeky.

The book features a foreword by Playboy founder Hugh Hefner and an introduction by Heidi Klum, who has shed her clothes for the photographer's skillful erotic studies on a number of occasions. "I'm never shy with Rankin," Klum says.

Kate Moss has also been snapped by the master in her birthday suit many times; some of the images are featured in the book. "Any time Rankin takes a picture he knows what he wants, and there is really no chance of being anyone but who you are, even if you try," she notes. "You can trust him. I trust him."

Tags: erotica, Heidi Klum, HeidiKlum, Hugh Hefner, HughHefner, Kate Moss, KateMoss, nude, photography, Playboy, Rankin, Scotland, sex, supermodel

Hugh Hefner Sells At A Deep Discount

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

I mentioned briefly before that Hugh Hefner and his wife Kimberley sold her house next to the Playboy mansion in Holmby Hills, California but I neglected to mention the fact that is sold for $10 million below the list price of $27.995 million. The LA Times Hot Property column reported that the home, which hit the market in March, sold for $18 million. The 7,300-square-foot English Manor-style house was built in 1929 and has five bedrooms and seven bathrooms. The home is behind private gates on 2.3 flat acres that back up to the Los Angeles Country Club and the grounds include a swimming pool.

The Hefners bought the home in 1996 for Kimberley Hefner to live in with their two sons. It was then listed then at $17.25 million so if Hefner bought anywhere close to list price back then he isn't making too much on this deal. But the aging magazine tycoon's lavish lifestyle has been straining the budget of the Playboy empire and so the sale might have been a matter of some urgency.

[Thanks, Charles! via Listed]

Gallery: Hugh Hefner in Holmby Hills

Tags: holmby hills, HolmbyHills, hugh hefner, HughHefner, playboy, playboy mansion, PlayboyMansion

Camacho Cigars to be Featured at Playboy ESPY Party

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars

If you're heading to the ESPY Awards pre-party at the Playboy Mansion tomorrow night, be ready to clip and light a Camacho. The cigar company has been selected as the official cigar of the event. So, while you're hobnobbing with the wealthy and beautiful – athletes and other celebrities will be there – pick up a Camacho Select, Triple Maduro (a great, full-bodied smoke), Diploma or 10th Anniversary.

"Camacho Cigars is proud to be a part of the pre-ESPY festivities," said Dylan Austin, marketing director of Camacho Cigars. "The Playboy Mansion is an iconic location that every man dreams of visiting at least once in his life. This only adds to our excitement in being involved in this illustrious event."

The night will include dancing, entertainment, a few poker games and just about everything else you'd expect from a party at the Playboy Mansion. If there's a better way to smoke a Camacho, my imagination can't come up with it.

Tags: award, award show, award shows, awards, awards show, awards shows, AwardShow, AwardShows, AwardsShow, AwardsShows, camacho, camachoselect, cigar, cigars, espn, espy, espyawards, espys, playboy, playboy magazine, playboy mansion, PlayboyMagazine, PlayboyMansion

Hugh Hefner's $1300, Six-Volume Autobiography

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Books

In September, Taschen will publish Playboy founder Hugh Hefner's illustrated biography in six volumes, combined with a chronological selection of highlights from the seminal men's magazine's first 25 years (1953 to 1979). Limited to 1,500 numbered and signed copies, the six-volume set comes packaged in a luxurious plexiglass box and costs $1,300. Beginning with Hef's youth and his boyhood comic collection and ending with the height of Playboy's success, the anthology is billed as "the most probing and intimate portrait of Hefner ever made."

Hefner's extensive participation and the inclusion of a wealth of memorabilia from his personal scrapbooks set this anthology apart from other Playboy books. The six volumes contain over 700 pages of autobiographical text about Hef's youth, army days, first attempts as a cartoonist, early career, girlfriends, and Playboy's launch, illustrated by original Hefner artwork and cartoons, correspondence, and a huge selection of archival photos, many previously unpublished.

Tags: Hugh Hefner, HughHefner, Playboy, sex, Taschen

Hugh Hefner's Classic Mercedes Limos for Sale

by Jared Paul Stern (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Luxury Cars & Autos, Celebrity Shopping

A pair of ultra-luxurious Mercedes-Benz 600 Pullman limousines from 1969 and 1971 that belonged to Playboy founder Hugh Hefner are being offered for sale by a collector in New Zealand. Hef ordered the 21-ft. long limos with the rare 6-door configuration, of which only 140 were built, new from the Mercedes factory in Stuttgart. The 600 Pullman, last of the hand-built Mercedes models, was the transport of choice for VIPs including the Pope, Coco Chanel, John Lennon, Jack Nicholson, Aristotle Onassis, and Elvis Presley, among others.

Both cars are painted black and feature forward facing seats at the center doors, a hydraulically operated reclining seat at the rear, curtains in the rear compartment, tinted glass, a soundproof glass center division with an intercom system for communicating with the chauffeur, and tons of chrome and wood paneling. The 1969 model is finished in black leather and features a refrigerated bar cabinet, while the 1971 has red leather and a built-in television. Both mint condition cars are priced at about $165,000.

[via JamesList]

Tags: Hugh Hefner, HughHefner, limousine, Mercedes, Mercedes-Benz, Playboy

Will Richard Branson Buy Playboy?

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wealth

Can Richard Branson be the new Hugh Hefner? Rumors are flying that the VIrgin Media tycoon is interested in the Playboy empire. The company has been allegedly shopped around for $300 million even though the market value is perceived to less than $100 million. Part of the reason for wide difference in figures is because the company wants to make sure that any deal will help Playboy's 83-year-old founder maintain his lavish lifestyle. Although one of Hugh Hefner's homes is on the market for nearly $28 million there is still main Playboy mansion and its tremendous upkeep to consider. He remains the editor of Playboy magazine and has said he wants to pass down his interest in the company to his teenage sons Marston and Cooper.

While Hefner's lifestyle has burdened the company his public recognition has also been a major part of keeping interest in Playboy Enterprises. The good thing about Branson in charge versus some faceless equity company is that you would have another charismatic man at the helm. Branson also excels at using his lifestyle and his appearances to further his businesses and he also has a wide variety of businesses which could partner with Playboy.

UPDATE: Looks like the Playboy/Virgin empire will forever exist only in our minds.

Source

Tags: hugh hefner, HughHefner, playboy, richard branson, RichardBranson

Playboy Chooses Camacho for Golf VIP Players Party

by Tom Johansmeyer (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Cigars

I'm not surprised that Playboy Golf selected Camacho to be the official cigar for The Playboy Golf VIP Players Party. Camacho's a strong brand, has great name recognition ... and its sticks do tend to smoke well.

The event will take place on Friday, March 27, 2009, and athletes, executives, bunnies and other celebrities will be invited to smoke the Camacho Select Lonsdale. Cigars will be cut and lit at the Roosevelt Hotel in Hollywood, CA. As if the great smokes aren't enough, the night's festivities will include dancing, entertainment and the body painting for which Playboy has become (in)famous.

Dylan Austin, marketing director of Camacho Cigars, says, "Playboy is one of the most iconic brands for gentleman worldwide, and we at Camacho Cigars are honored to be selected as the official cigar for The Playboy Golf VIP Players Party."

Golfers will be pleased to find an extra treat – a few Camacho cigars in the gift bags.

Tags: camacho, camacho select, camachoselect, cigar, cigars, golf, golfing, playboy

Hugh Hefner in Holmby Hills, Estate of the Day

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping

It's not the Playboy mansion but if you've ever wanted to live next door to the girls next door this is your chance. Hugh Hefner and wife Kimberley (yep, he's still technically married but they have been separated for ten years) have listed the home next door to the mansion. This is where Kimberley has raised their two children who are now in their late teens.

The seven-bedroom home is on a two-acre walled property that is also adjacent to the Los Angeles Country Club. The estate was built in 1929 and has expansive lawns and a pool. The listing doesn't offer a single interior picture (it's rather a stalker's view of the home) but the listing says there is a two-story entry, paneled study, family room and a master bedroom suite with a marble bath and a separate dressing room.

The Real Estalker reports that the Hefners bought the home in 1996 for around $6.7 million from the estate of TV Guide heiress turned philanthropist Lita Annenberg. The question of why the Hefners are selling is up for debate. The party line per the LA Times Hot Property column is that the young Hefner boys are going off to college and the house is too big. But with all the stories of trouble in the Playboy empire and rumors of a potential sale it's likely Hefner has been told to lighten his financial load. The question is whether or not at $27.995 million there is anyone willing to snap up the ivy-covered mansion.

Experience more lush living in luxury homes and mansions or see the stars living large with celebrity homes galleries at AOL Real Estate.

Gallery: Hugh Hefner in Holmby Hills

Source

Tags: celebrity real estate, CelebrityRealEstate, estate of the day, EstateOfTheDay, holmby hills, HolmbyHills, hugh hefner, HughHefner, playboy

Continue reading “Hugh Hefner in Holmby Hills, Estate of the Day ”