expire-images:2009-2-12

Major Impressionist Art Theft Took Just 3 Minutes

Filed under: Art

Most of us picture art thieves as slinky sleuth types who sneak in under cover of night and quietly disable the alarm system, but apparently that's not what works best in Switzerland. This past Sunday 3 masked men dressed all in black burst into a private museum in Zurich in the middle of the day and took 4 paintings valued at £85 million by simply ripping them off the walls and running. They were in and out of the building and flying down the road in a beater of a white car in less than 3 minutes! Amazing. Sad, and outrageously embarrassing for Switzerland, but amazing.

The truly sad part is that they made off with some major and historic pieces of art: Cézanne's The Boy in a Red Vest, Degas's Viscount Lepic and his Daughters, Monet's Poppies Near Vetheuil, and Van Gogh's Blossoming Chestnut Branches. What a tragedy! I hope they get caught before the art is lost underground forever.

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Tags: art, expire-images:2009-2-12, impressionism, impressionist, steal, swiss, switzerland, theft

Former NBA Star Facing Foreclosure

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Estates, Celebrity Shopping, Sports

The latest celebrity victim of the foreclosure crisis is former NBA star Latrell Sprewell. Last summer, Sprewell's yacht, the 70-foot "Milwaukee's Best" was repossessed now his home is meeting the same fate. RBS Citizens NA, or Citizens Bank, has filed a foreclosure suit on Sprewell's $405,000 home in River Hills, a suburb of Milwaukee. Sprewell bought the home in 1994 and owed $295,138 in outstanding payments plus interest. The documents say that Sprewell failed to make his mortgage payments of $2,593 per month since last September.

Sprewell, now 37, was once one of the NBA's infamous bad boys, known for choking a coach during practice. He played 13 seasons total for three teams. Just a few years ago he turned down a three-year,$21 million contract extension from the Minnesota Timberwolves saying, "I've got my family to feed." At that time he was making $14.6 million a year. The yacht, which Sprewell bought for around $1.5 million was sold at auction for $856,000 to help pay off the $1.3 million he owes on the boat.

Sprewell is in some good company. Check out our gallery of other celebrity foreclosures below.

UPDATE: This article says that 60% of NBA players go broke after only five years of retirement. An interesting read for those of you in the comments who were wondering how this could have happened to Latrell Sprewell.

Gallery: Celebrity Foreclosures

Jeana Keough from the Real Housewives of Orange County

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Tags: expire-images:2009-2-12

Private Airbus A380 To Get A Gold Paint Job

by Deidre Woollard (RSS feed) —

Filed under: Wings, Celebrity Shopping

Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal bin Abdul Aziz al-Saud the soon-to-be owner of the first private Airbus A380 is sparing no expense to make his doubledecker toy the most fabulously extravagant jet on the planet. He spent over $300 million on the plane and is currently spending more than half that much money on customizing the jet. As we've mentioned before on this site, the jet will have a whirlpool bath and sauna, a dining room paneled in marble, a gym and a desert-themed fiber-optic mural. The most incredible touch might just be the approximately $58 million he is spending to have the plane painted in gold leaf on the outside. It not only sounds luxurious it also sounds a little dangerous if the sun bounces off it. The plane will be ready in two years, until then, the prince will have to content himself with his current ride, his own 747 jumbo jet.

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Tags: a380, airbus, expire-images:2009-2-12, jumbo jet, prince al-waleed, PrinceAl-waleed, sheikh