russian billionaires

Has Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich been exaggerating the size of his gigayacht Eclipse (above), billed as the world's largest and most expensive privately owned yacht? Judging by Camper & Nicholsons' newly-released Super Yachting Index that would seem to be the case. C&N, the leading international yacht broker established in 1782, lists the world's largest yachts among other data in its much-anticipated report. According to their rigorously fact-checked figures, Abramovich's behemoth built by Blohm + Voss is still the world's largest yacht – but only by a hair. C&N states that it measures only 533 ft., a whopping 24 ft. shorter than the figure in general circulation. That means Sheikh Mohammed Bin Rashid Al-Maktoum's Dubai at 531.5 ft., which held the World's Largest title until the Eclipse was constructed, is only 18 inches shorter. And since the Dubai ruler basically owns his own shipyard now – the U.A.E.'s Platinum Yachts, where the Dubai was finished – it wouldn't take much for him to have it refitted with an extra few feet of metal to put Abramovich firmly in his place. We expect he'll see to it straight away – meanwhile, Abramovich should consider changing his yacht's name to something a little more humble, like Obstruction.

[via JamesList]

Russian business magazine Finans has named oligarch Roman Abramovich's 17-year-old daughter Anna (right) one of Russia's most eligible women, citing her $3.4 billion fortune. Anna, who lives with her mother Irina, the billionaire's second wife, in London, will inherit the cash as part of the oligarch's divorce settlement. Her father threw her a $600,000 Sweet Sixteen party last year.

Anna has four siblings and a half-brother, born this year to Abramovich's gorgeous girlfriend Dasha Zhukova. The Australian reports that Abramovich is displeased at the magazine's coverage of his daughter. Back in May we reported that Anna had been partying hard in London with Will.i.am and the Black Eyed Peas at posh nightclub Whisky Mist.

Anna's no Paris Hilton however, nor is she Russia's biggest heiress; she's worth less than Anastasia Potanina, 26, daughter of mining magnate Vladimir Potanin, who's expected to inherit $3.8 billion. Seven young women are included in the list in total, with combined fortunes worth over $17 billion. Of course exact details are a closely guarded secret.

Roman Abramovich's new 557-ft. Eclipse (above), the world's largest and most expensive privately owned yacht, is awash in a sea of snafus leaving the oligarch steaming mad, the London Daily Mail reports. Abramovich has yet to take delivery of the jaw-dropping ship, which is said to have cost up to $1 billion and features a military-grade missile defense system, armor plating, bullet-proof windows, three helipads, two swimming pools and a wellness center. He is reportedly feuding with the boatyard, Germany's Blohm + Voss, over allegedly defective finishes and fittings.

The paper reports that the problems are said to include a giant mirror on one of the nine decks being smashed during tests in the North Sea; vibrations from the electro-diesel engines rattling the billionaire's bespoke crystal glassware; a dispute over demands by Abramovich that exotic animal and reptile skins used on chairs and to line the walls of a massage room be ethically sourced; an argument over who should pay for shifting the location of one of the helipads; difficulties with the French-made navigation system; and flaking paint on some of the decks. Neither Blohm + Voss nor Abramovich would comment for the Daily Mail's story.

German newspaper Bild has scored an exclusive sneak peak inside Roman Abramovich's new 557-ft. Eclipse (above), the world's largest and most expensive privately owned yacht which was recently completed by Hamburg shipyard Blohm + Voss at a cost estimated to be near $1 billion. The gigayacht boasts every luxury finish imaginable in its nearly 20,000-sq-.ft. interior, including a master suite upholstered in shagreen (stingray skin) on the topmost sixth deck with a retractable moon roof. On Deck 4 there are two VIP suites and eight guest cabins, while accommodations for the 80 crew members needed to man the massive vessel are located in the bow. The décor however is fairly understated with earth tones predominating, we note. One of the three helicopter landing pads disappears under the deck with the push of a button, and the yacht also features the world's largest onboard swimming pool which converts into a dancefloor, in addition to a wellness center including a fitness studio, hairdresser, massage parlor, sauna, steambath and whirlpool. Bild notes the Eclipse will cost about $100,000 per day, or $36.5 million per year, to operate. Check out some exclusive interior images here.

Mechanic turned steel baron Vladimir Lisin (right) has replaced Mikhail Prokhorov as Russia's richest man with a fortune of $18.8 billion. Russian magazine Finans just released its annual ranking of the country's oligarchs, showing that Prokhorov, known for his shenanigans over the Villa Leopolda, has slipped into second place while Roman Abramovich languishes in third.

All three men did very well for themselves last year. Lisin, 53, more than doubled his wealth from a year earlier to overtake Prokhorov, whose own fortune grew 27 percent to $17.85 billion, and Abramovich, whose estimated wealth is $17 billion, an increase of 22 percent. As my colleague Deirdre Woollard reported last week Russia gained 28 new billionaires in the last year.

The somewhat secretive Lisin is a keen hunter and a connoisseur of Cuban cigars. He owns a 16th century castle in the Scottish Highlands with 13 bedrooms on 3,300 acres ideal for grouse shooting, deer stalking and game fishing. Lisin's name means "fox" in Russian, and he is well known in his homeland for always staying on the Kremlin's good side.

In the last few months we've been noticing Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich doing a lot of spending. There was that pricey New York dinner, the lavish New Year's Eve party, the new house in Los Angeles. He seems to be doing quite well and he's not alone, Russia is making billionaires once again. The Moscow-based magazine Finans says that Abramovich remains one of Russia's top three richest men. The magazine's data reveals that all those in the top ten had a fortune of at least $9.95 billion. Two of the richest, Mikhail Prokhorov and Roman Abramovich were worth more last year, with $14.1 billion and $13.9 billion, respectively.

Businessweek reports that Russia gained 28 new billionaires bringing the total to 77 from 49 a year ago. That's a good number but not quite up to the 101 billionaires that were filling Russia's coffers in 2008. Finans states that the combined wealth of the 10 richest Russians now sits at $139.3 billion, up 84 percent over last year but still down from the $221 billion the 10 richest were worth two years ago.

In London today, $90 million in Russian art is going under the gavel, and the auction houses are hoping that a still robust community of Russian billionaires will come out in force to repatriate their heritage. Both Christie's and Sotheby's are holding auctions on December 1, 2 and 3, with MacDougall's, which specializes in Russian art, also selling on December 2 and 3. Bonhams is conducting one today.

There are some signs that the sales could go well. Sotheby's moved $13.8 million in Russian art at an auction a month ago, topping the $9 million presale estimate. The Russian government is saying the economy should grow next year, after falling 10 percent this year. If recovery is en route, big spending Russians may show up at this week's art auctions.

There's no shortage of Russian art coming on the market this week. In addition to the 540 lots being offered by Sotheby's, at a presale range of 14.8 million pounds to 21.2 million pounds, MacDougall's is selling 460 lots (12.5 million pounds to 17.6 million pounds), including a painting of a topless woman by Zinaida Serebriakova for between 1 million pounds and 1.5 million pounds. Christie's has 578 lots, with a presale estimate of 6.5 million pounds to 9.3 million pounds.

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.

Last year, the Russians were buying art just as fast as they could. Now, they're doing the same thing in reverse. Sotheby's and Christie's are bringing $31 million in Russian art to market, thanks to a global recession that has left the country's many billionaires financially crippled and in desperate need of liquidity.

Christie's is hoping to rake in $21.6 million from today's Russian art auction, which includes a porcelain dinner set owned by once-heir to the throne Grand Duke Paul. Sotheby's has approximately $9 million in Russian art, which it plans to send under the gavel on November 2.

If art and economic never intersected, we could just enjoy the aesthetic and be done with it. But, reality forces its way in – especially with the Russian economy 10 percent smaller than it was a year ago. And, the number of Russian billionaires has plummeted from 110 in 2008 to 35 now. Wealthy Russians and Ukrainians, according to William MacDougall, co-director of MacDougall's in London, are responsible for more than 90 percent of the market for Russian art.

So, expect the selling prices to suck, frankly. Even with some strong lots – Alexis de Tiesenhausen, director of Russian art for Christie's calls this auction unique in terms of "quality and historical significance" – the target market is selling rather than buying. The Christie's auction consists of 550 lots. The Sotheby's auction will have 122 – including paintins by Natalia Goncharova and Konstantin Korovin.

Estimates are much lower than they were in 2008, because of supply at auction, the drop in the art market and the absence of buyers in the target market.

In addition to the military-grade missile defense system, armor plating and bullet-proof windows featured on Roman Abramovich's new 557-ft. Eclipse (above), the world's largest and most expensive privately owned yacht, the Russian oligarch has installed a high-tech anti-photo shield designed to keep the paparazzi at bay. The system relies on lasers to block any digital camera lenses nearby, the London Times reports. Infrared lasers will detect the cameras' electronic light sensors, known as charge-coupled devices (CCDs), and then fire a focused beam of light at the camera, disrupting its ability to record a digital image. The Times, which also claims the total cost of the Eclipse has now ballooned over the $1 billion mark, reports the yacht set off on a sea trial last week with 150 engineers and maritime experts aboard who will put it through its paces over 10 days. Abramovich, who just paid $89 million for a villa in St. Bart's, is due to take delivery of the yacht on December 22.

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.

Back in April we reported that despite the economic crisis Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich planned to complete work on the 557-ft. Eclipse, the world's largest and most expensive privately owned yacht. Now the ocean-going behemoth has been launched on its maiden voyage to test operational systems before the finishing touches are applied, at a reported final cost of close to $500 million according to the London Daily Mail. As the all-white megayacht glided out of the Blohm & Voss shipyard (above) in Hamburg, Germany the other day, it dwarfed a navy destroyer it passed along the way.

The Eclipse, which features a military-grade missile defense system, armor plating and bullet-proof windows, will literally eclipse the recently-debuted $350 million, 531-ft. Dubai owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the Emir of Dubai. The ship also has a submarine that can be launched underwater and dive to a depth of 160 ft. that doubles as an escape pod, as well as two helicopter pads. Abramovich already owns several other superyachts, including the 377-ft. Pelorus, the 282 ft. Ecstasea and the 160 ft. Sussurro, which cost him $25 million a year to maintain, and apparently plans to keep them all.

"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.

It seems that despite a disastrous economy in which he lost a reported $20 billion, Russian oligarch Roman Abramovich is pressing on with plans for the Eclipse (above), the $355 million megayacht which will be the world's biggest upon completion next year. The 555-ft. ship, which includes a military-grade missile defense system, armor plating and bullet-proof windows, will literally eclipse the recently-debuted $350 million, 531-ft. Dubai owned by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al-Maktoum, the Emir of Dubai.

There has been much speculation over whether Abramovich would shelve the Eclipse and / or sell off some of his other superyachts such as the 377-ft. Pelorus, but the Moscow Times reports he plans to keep them all. In fact, Abramovich is said to have already purchased a berth for the Eclipse at Porto Montenegro, the new megayacht marina under construction in the former communist country being billed as "the Monaco of the Balkans" (which we reported on last year).

It seems that Russia's new richest man, Mikhail Prokhorov, may not have been telling the whole truth when he denied buying the world's most expensive house, the $750 million Villa Leopolda (above) on the French Riviera, last year. Back in August we reported that the metals magnate was the mysterious purchaser of the eye-popping property, but Prokhorov, who's worth $14.1 billion, protested his innocence, saying he declined to do business in France because of a mix-up with some prostitutes and the French police. Now the London Times reports that Prokhorov signed a contract on the property and paid a $55 million deposit, but wants to back out of the deal.

Prokhorov reportedly lost $7 billion in the economic crisis but has fared better than fellow oligarch Roman Abramovich. Prokhorov will likely face a legal battle over the deposit, which is non-refundable under French law, with the Villa's seller Lily Safra. "Lily is adamant that she's not handing the deposit back," a source close to the deal tells the London Daily Mail. "Mr. Prokhorov, in turn, claims that property prices have collapsed since August, and the figures originally discussed were unreasonable. He wants out, and he wants his money back." We expect Prokhorov, founder of a new magazine for snobs, will likely issue another denial this time as well.