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100+ Russian Children to Inherit $1 Billion Apiece

For the very first time in the history of Russia, over 100 children are in line to inherit more than $1 billion each from their ultra-rich oligarch fathers. Russian business magazine Finans has found the number of likely legatees swelled to 112 this year, as compared with 70 last year, the London Telegraph reports.

At the top of the list are the two toddlers belonging to Russia's richest man, Oleg Deripaska, who stand to inherit as much as $20 billion each. The paper notes the list is not terribly scientific, however, as the rankings were arrived at merely by dividing each billionaire's fortune by the number of children he has, without regard to age, primogeniture or other mitigating factors.

Therefore, since Luxist mascot Roman Abramovich (right) has five children, his brood only clocks in at No. 34, with an expectation of $4.6 billion each. Elsewhere on the list, Lukoil owner Vagit Alekperov's son makes No. 2 with $13.5 billion coming to him, and steel tycoon Vladimir Lisin's three children rank at No. 14 with $7.4 billion each. See the gallery for some of Russia's richest dads.

Gallery: Russian Billionaires

Oleg DeripaskaVladimir LisinVagit AlekperovAlexei MordashovMikhail Prokhorov

The 10 Richest Streets in the World


The Times of London has come up with a new list of the world's 10 richest streets based on property prices. The most expensive street on the globe, unsurprisingly, is in ultra-rich Monaco - Avenue Princess Grace, to be exact, where average prices run about $17,000 per sq. ft. It's a pretty safe bet that anyone with an address there is a millionaire at the very least. In second place is Severn Road in Hong Kong's Victoria Peak district (above), where the average price is about $11,000 per sq. ft. Here are the rest of the runners-up:
No. 3 - Fifth Avenue, New York
No. 4 - Kensington Palace Gardens, London
No. 5 - Avenue Montaigne, Paris
No. 6 - Ostozhenka, Moscow
No. 7 - Via Suvretta, St, Mortiz, Switzerland
No. 8 - Carolwood Drive, Beverly Hills
No. 9 - Wolseley Road, Sydney, Australia
No. 10 - Altamount Road, Mumbai, India

Gallery: World's Richest Streets

Avenue Princess Grace, Monaco, #1Fifth Avenue, New York, #3Kensington Palace Gardens, London, #4Via Suvretta, St. Moritz, #7Carolwood Drive, Beverly Hills, #8

The World's Biggest Billion-Heiresses To Be

Forbes has come up with a new list of the 10 young women most likely to inherit their mega-rich fathers' fortunes - in short, the billion-heiresses of tomorrow. The final list does not merely represent the daughters of the world's richest men, however; for a true accounting, the magazine started with the daughters of the world's 150 richest people, all worth $6.4 billion or more, but then focused only on those with few or no siblings to divide the loot.

They further narrowed the field by disqualifying those with fathers like Bill Gates who have declared their intention to leave their fortunes to charity instead of their children. Also, they did not include those who have already inherited their money, like the world's richest woman, L'Oréal heiress Liliane Bettencourt.

No. 1 on the Forbes list is India's Vanisha Mittal Bhatia, daughter of Lakshmi Mittal, the fourth-richest person in the world with a fortune of $45 billion. The No. 2 and 3 heiresses are also the daughters of Indian tycoons, while No. 4 is Delphine Arnault-Gancia, daughter of LVMH chairman Bernard Arnault, the world's 13th-richest man with a fortune of $25.5 billion. And clocking in at No. 7 is championship equestrienne Georgina Bloomberg (above), daughter of New York's billionaire mayor Michael Bloomberg. See the gallery for more.

Gallery: World's Biggest Heiresses

Vanisha Mittal Bhatia, #1Delphine Arnault-Gancia, #4Marta Ortega Perez, #5Marina Berlusconi, #9Samantha Kluge, #10

See Australia From the Prince of Wales' Private Train


Starting next month, you can hire the private train carriage built for the Prince of Wales in 1919 on an unparalleled journey through the heart of Australia. The carriage will be available on The Ghan's journey from Adelaide on the continent's southern coast to the port of Darwin at its top, one of the world's great railway excursions. The historic carriage was built for Edward, the Prince of Wales (later Edward VIII and then the Duke of Windsor), for his royal visit in 1919. Accommodating up to ten guests in its ornate wood-paneled lounge and suites, the beautifully-restored carriage costs about $15,000 for a one-way, two-night trip.

[via UrbanDaddy]

Gallery: Prince of Wales' Private Carriage

Prince of Wales LoungePrince of Wales SuitePrince of Wales BathroomDining CarGourmet Meal

Luxury Living by the Sea


A really great, oversized design book with beautifully-reproduced images can sometimes actually transport you to another place. Such is the case with a new volume titled New Seaside Interiors, edited by Angelika Taschen, which is anything but a mishmash of coastal clichés. Forget what you think you know about nautical décor; with examples of brilliant seaside design on all five continents, from Iceland to Chile, the architecture in this book harmonizes with the ocean in ways that go far beyond sprinkling a few seashells around the guest bath. From fashion designer Pierre Cardin's Bond villain-style floating house in St. Tropez to Dolce & Gabbana's eye-popping seaside villas in Italy, this is the né plus ultra of seaside style. See the gallery for more.

Gallery: New Seaside Interiors

The cover of the bookFloating House, St. Tropez, FranceRudolf Nureyev, Saint Barths, French West IndiesKen Crossen, New ZealandKen Crossen, New Zealand

Value of Buckingham Palace Plummets by $100 Million


It seems even the Queen of England is feeling the credit crunch. The value of her official London residence, Buckingham Palace, has fallen by about $100 million over the past 12 months, the London Telegraph reports. The 52-bedroom mansion, which dates to 1703 and sits on 40 prime acres, is now valued at $1.7 billion, down from $1.8 billion in August of last year. The dollar figure was assessed by UK property values database Zoopla, which has also calculated that the Queen's weekend retreat, Windsor Castle, has dropped about $15 million in value over the same period to $320 million. "The figures highlight that even the Royal Family aren't immune to the recent property market slump and that larger properties have been effected too," Zoopla CEO Alex Chesterman tells the paper, noting that further decreases could well be in the offing.

Gallery: Poor Buckingham Palace

The GatesChanging of the GuardBeefeatersGrand StaircaseDrawing Room

Damien Hirst Sick of His Own Art


British art world bad boy Damien Hirst, probably the world's most successful living artist, says he's getting sick of his own work. Hirst says the upcoming major auction of his work at Sotheby's in London later this month, which is expected to bring in about $120 million, will mark the end of some of his signature techniques, including ones that brought him fame and fortune in the first place. (Some cynics say the pieces aren't selling as well as they used to).

Except for a few pieces he's currently finishing up, Hirst says he will no longer be producing any of his famed formaldehyde works, such as the shark and cow series, nor will he continue with the spot and spin paintings he's so well known for. Explaining the change, Hirst credits his friend Joe Strummer, late frontman of The Clash: "It's like [Joe] once told me about writing songs," the artists says. "If you can guess what the rhyme's gonna be in the next line, then it's shit and you've gotta change it."

Gallery: Hirst's Last Work

Spot painting (LSD)Spot circleSpin paintingThe Golden CalfShark in Formaldehyde

Brit Artist Makes $2.7 Million Gold Statue of Kate Moss

British artist Marc Quinn has cast a life-size solid gold statue of Kate Moss, valued at $2.7 million and said to be the world's largest gold statue made since the days of Ancient Egypt.

The statue, entitled Siren, is a larger, golden version of his 2006 marble statue of Moss, Sphinx, in a provocative yoga pose. Sphinx weighs in at 110 pounds, which is probably quite close to Moss' actual weight.

Quinn's work "deals with the distanced relationship we have with our bodies," according to his gallery's bio, "highlighting how the conflict between the 'natural' and 'cultural' has a grip on the contemporary psyche." Moss is "the ideal beauty of the moment," the artist tells Vogue UK.

Siren will be on display alongside works by Damien Hirst and others at the British Museum in London for its Satuephilia show running from Oct. 4 - Jan. 25. See the gallery for more examples of Quinn's work.

Gallery: The Art of Marc Quinn

Sphinx (Kate Moss)Another Moss Female bustClose upSkeleton sculpture

The Classicist: At The Carlyle Hotel


When Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week hits New York City this Friday, the hip downtown hotels will of course be flooded with fashionistas. The ones who value refinement and elegance over mere trendiness however will head to the Upper East Side's Carlyle Hotel, a luxurious landmark since it first opened in 1930 and one of our favorite places to stay in the world.

French Vogue editrix Carine Roitfeld recently declared that the Carlyle is her favorite hotel as well, and with the addition of a luxe new spa next month, with its "sleek palette of slate, charcoal and black complemented by finishes in nickel, chrome and glass and rich molding," others are sure to follow suit. Not that the Carlyle lacks for high-profile guests; since it opened nearly 80 years ago, the hotel has played host to an endless procession of movie stars, millionaires and high society.

The Art Deco masterpiece was the perfect setting for both stylish philanderer John F. Kennedy, who owned an apartment on the 34th floor, and legendary cabaret singer Bobby Short, who hung his top hat at the swank Café Carlyle for decades (Woody Allen has also been known to hoist a clarinet there on occasion).

Gallery: The Carlyle Hotel

The Hotel from the ParkThe famous entranceThe lobbyThe loungeRestaurant

Continue reading The Classicist: At The Carlyle Hotel

Abramovich Bankrolls Bacon Show at Girlfriend's Gallery


Profligate Russian billionaire Roman Abramovich is bankrolling a major Francis Bacon exhibition at his gorgeous 27-year-old girlfriend Dasha Zhukova's new Moscow art gallery in 2010. The show at the luxe gallery, called the Garage Center for Contemporary Culture and also financed by Abramovich, will be entitled Death Shadowing Life: Francis Bacon: The Late Paintings, 1971-92, and will subsequently travel to the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg, The Art Newspaper reports. The announcement would seem to explain Abramovich's astounding $86.3 million acquisition of a Bacon triptych at Sotheby's in May. Zhukova's gallery officially opens on Sept. 16 with an Ilya Kabakov retrospective.

London Luxury Real Estate Down for 1st Time in 5 Yrs.


Luxury residential real estate prices in central London, the world's most expensive city, have had their first annual decline since 2003 due to worsening economic conditions. The average price of houses and apartments in London's nine most expensive neighborhoods fell 1.6 percent in August from a year earlier, according to an index of properties valued at $2 million or more, Bloomberg reports.

While it's no secret that London prices have been dropping - my colleague Deidre Woollard reported on the trend in July - this is the first time the full scope of the decline has been assessed. Total prime residential sales in London are down an astounding 46 percent from last year; the downturn is being blamed on "pessimism in the financial services sector."

Some mega-rich moguls, such as Ukrainian billionaire Viktor Pinchuk, who paid over $150 million for a five-story London townhouse earlier this year, are doing their share to prop up the market.

Marc Jacobs Sick of Louis Vuitton Collaborations

As Louis Vuitton's latest line in collaboration with an outside talent hits stores, the fashion house's designer Marc Jacobs says the increasingly frequent projects have gotten out of hand. Vuitton's new collection designed by Comme des Garçons' Rei Kawakubo just went on sale in Tokyo, but unlike previous LV collections by Takashi Murakami (far right, with Jacobs) and Richard Prince, Jacobs complains that he had no creative input on Kawakubo's, New York magazine reports.

"I've kind of warned everybody up there [at LV] that I think they've gotten a little too into this idea ," Jacobs says. "I'm glad that everybody gets behind it, but what they don't realize is that I do it at a pace that maintains the brand's integrity and seems really right, and I think that sometimes everybody loves a good idea so much that they kind of go too far and it kind of kills it." This could be an indication that despite the massive profits brought in by the trendy collaborations, they could be coming to an end soon, or at least slowing down considerably.

Gallery: Louis Vuitton Collaborations

Keepall by Stephen SprouseMurakami LV patternMonogramouflage by MurakamiRichard Prince LV adLV bag by Richard Prince

Greek Billionaire Commissions Yacht by Jeff Koons


This has got to be one of the stranger luxury craft plying the waters: Guilty, the 115-ft. yacht Greek billionaire Dakis Joannou commissioned from art world superstar Jeff Koons. Joannou, an industrialist who owns one of the world's finest collections of contemporary art, had Koons' design executed by Italian yacht builder Ivana Porfiri.

Though Koons' colorful scheme calls to mind the Pop Art paintings of the late Roy Liechtenstein, Joannou says the design is actually based on a WWI camouflage pattern. After the yacht's completion, Joannou came across a text painting entitled Guilty by British artist Sarah Morris, which he immediately purchased to decorate the yacht. The eye-popping craft which was recently spotted on its maiden voyage in Monaco.

[via Monaco Eye]

Gallery: Guilty by Jeff Koons

Rear viewFront viewSide viewGuilty Painting & SternOwner Dakis Joannou

Sean "Diddy" Combs Can't Afford His Private Jet


Sean "Diddy" Combs' relentless (and so far fairly fruitless) pursuit of an acting career has apparently taken a toll on his finances. In the latest installment of his video blog, the rap mogul complains that the gas price explosion has forced him to forego the use of his private jet on his now frequent trips to Los Angeles to meet with movie people. "Gas prices are too f-ing high!" he complains in the clip. "If I'm flying back and forth to L.A. twice a month, that's like $200,000 - $250,000 round trip. F-k that!"

As a result, Diddy says, he's gone back to flying commercial, and throws in an appeal to his "Saudi Arabian brothers" to "please send me some oil for my jet." He then insists, "This is really happening!", filming himself boarding an American Airlines flight, adding, "and I'm in coach!" We're pretty sure Diddy, who makes $35 million a year, is joking about that last bit.

Belstaff, Audi, Clooney & Pitt Team Up for Darfur


Luxe British outerwear company Belstaff, founded in 1924 and known for their distinctive motorcycle jackets, is teaming up with Audi to produce a one-off SUV to benefit the charity founded by Ocean's Eleven co-stars George Clooney and Brad Pitt. The stars' charity, Not On Our Watch (NOOW), which my colleague Laura Malesich reported on earlier this year, raises awareness about humanitarian crises around the world. Belstaff and Audi are co-designing a special edition Q7 luxury SUV which will be sold to benefit NOOW's efforts in Darfur, Vogue UK reports. Earlier this week, Clooney and Pitt hosted a fundraiser for NOOW at the Venice Film Festival.

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