A wooden sculpture of the supreme Buddha sold for more than 14.3 million dollars in New York on Tuesday, far exceeding pre-sale estimates and setting a new record for a work of Japanese art.
The 800-year-old depiction of the Dainichi Nyorai, attributed to the sculptor Unkei, was bought by the Japanese department store chain Mitsukoshi, shattering the pre-sale estimates for the work of 1.5 to 2.5 million dollars.
The record price “is a testament to the extreme importance and beauty of this supreme Buddha, and elevates Japanese art to a new record level,” said Katsura Yamaguchi, Christie’s director of Japanese and Korean Art. Continue reading →
Adding one more feather to his hat, Richard Branson’s Virgin Charter is one of his more intriguing endeavors. But like most of you, I too am wondering that will Virgin Charter make it possible for an average/well-to-do leisure traveler to fly in a private jet without plunging into debt? Yeah! The company is hoping that it can put customers on the return trips that chartered jets must often make empty after they’ve dropped passengers at their destination. The aim is to make booking charter flights as easy as booking commercial flights. Virgin Charter, majority owned by Virgin USA, aims to bring a level of transparency and simplicity to a business that does not exist today. Scott Duffy, Virgin Charter Chief Executive, said the new service is a combination of three of the best ideas on the Internet: the user and seller reviews provided by online auctioneer eBay Inc; Priceline’s ability to let consumers offer their own bids on flights and the simplicity of Expedia Inc and Travelocity. Roll over to know more about how easy its going to be ‘Click, buy and fly’.
Virgin Charter provides an easy way for buyers and sellers to find each other and manage entire transactions online. To purchase a charter trip, buyers can go online, post their specific trip request, locate available aircraft, negotiate pricing, and manage their entire trip over the internet. While sellers make their inventory available to a large international customer base without changing the way they currently do business. Virgin Charter, however, does not own or operate any aircraft or act as a charter broker. Eventually everyone wins! If you’re a buyer, you have more choice, more convenience, and more control. If you’re a seller, you have access to more customers and more control.
The world’s most expensive champagne, popping the records at 4,166 euros (6,485 dollars) for a personalised bottle of bubbly, goes on sale Thursday targeting a “super-rich” global elite.
The limited edition 12-bottle box sets of Perrier-Jouet champagne will be priced at 50,000 euros, according to French drink firm Pernod-Ricard.
Sales will be limited to a “community of super-rich” consumers in the United States, Britain, Japan, China, Russia, Switzerland and France.
“We are going to sell these box-sets to 100 people around the world who will have a chance to customise their own champagne, the ultimate luxury,” said Perrier Olivier Cavil, head of communications at Perrier-Jouet.
“Each buyer will come to Epernay (in eastern France) for a one-on-one meeting with our cellar master Herve Deschamps, and will personally add a ‘liqueur’ to personalise the bottles,” he said.
A combination of sugar and wines from different years, the liqueur will put the finishing touch on bottles of Perrier-Jouet’s 2000 Belle Epoque champagne.
Buyers will also be offered a storage nest in Perrier-Jouet’s cellars, to hold the bottles for another eight months.
The previous price record was held by a limited edition of Dom Perignon champagne, which went on sale in 2005 for 12,000 euros per three-litre bottle.
Pernod Ricard, which owns the champagne brands Mumm and Perrier-Jouet, is the fourth player in a booming global market.
Champagne producers exported 150 million bottles last year, a 7.3-percent jump from 2006, in addition to 188 million guzzled in France, according to industry figures.
Faced with surging demand, France’s champagne producers have decided on a very simple way to boost production by widening the vineyard.
A decision made by a French agricultural body on Thursday will allow producers to extend the area in which they are allowed to make the world’s most famous sparkling wine, until now restricted by a law dating back to 1927.
Sparkling white or rose wines are made in many parts of the world but only producers in a designated region of eastern France have the right to call their product champagne, under laws that establish it as a “controlled term of origin”, known under its French acronym AOC. Continue reading →
You get mad when you sit on or lose your $400.00 sunglasses, now imagine you had a pair you had shelled out a quick $65,000 on!
Enter the Luxuriator Fancy Yellow Sunglasses by Franco, and fancy they are! 18 kt gold and adorned with 132 hand set diamonds, these stunners also have a 2.0 carat Canary yellow diamond sitting on one of the brown lenses.
Available at the finest sunglasses boutiques in the United States as well as the Franco signature store in LA these sunglasses were originally created for one of Franco’s many celebrity clients. Just some of whom include Paris Hilton, Paul McCartney and Sharon Stone. Via bornrich. Continue reading →
No this is not an ad for a book, going by the headline, Morfeo sofa sleeper might just be assumed as this new sci-fi but welcome back to reality for it is exactly what it is said to be.Designed by Giovannoni and Rodrigo Torres for Domodinamica, this piece of furniture is a sofa sleeper. Appendages of these lights coming from either end of the bed are adjustable and interesting more than anything else.
Priced at $5,580, it is an opportune moment to thank the company for showing such ergonomy in its utility, if only it could be more aesthetic, but well one man’s poison is another man’s meat. Continue reading →
Whenever a celebrity tries to sell something expensive on eBay there’s always speculation as to motives, but here’s a case where it’s pretty obvious what the deal is: music producer Scott Storch is short on cash. He’s selling his yacht, called “Tiffany,” on eBay for well under its $20 million value (per Rolling Stone magazine) because apparently he can’t afford to keep it anymore. As of right now it’s going for just under $1,000,000. What a deal.
I’m no eBaying expert but I’m not sure it’s such a great sales technique to display in big bold letters “THE BOAT IS BEING SOLD UNDER DISTRESS ,OWNER BOUGHT HER AND NOW GOT SHORT ON MONEY.” Seems more than a little on the tacky side, and hardly inspires the celebrity “cool” factor that might help it sell for more.
UPDATE: Bidding has ended at $1,000,101, that’s a fair amount of cash but not enough to meet the reserve, looks like Storch is going to have to try again.
With the Octo Mosaic, the brand continues to build bridges, this time between contemporary horology, Western traditions and Middle Eastern culture.
Essentially a self-winding GMT Perpetual Calendar with all markers in Arabic, this watch – at first glance- appears to confirm that Swiss brands are styling and building products specifically for certain markets.
Then again, aside from this (and the color), the watch remains true to the Gerald Genta aesthetic (44.5mm diameter, 12.45mm height) with the trademark octagonal case (white gold).
Water resistant to 100 meters, this is actually a solid traveler’s watch. It is sold with a presentation box with its own winder as well as a compass (to locate Mecca) and instructions to set the compass.
The biggest, fastest and the longest-range plane to date has been unveiled. The makers of the private jet that became a must-have accessory for super-rich folks and czars of corporate world, the Gulfstream V, have announced their new model, the Gulfstream 650.
A mock-up of the jet was unveiled yesterday at Gulfstream’s Savannah, Ga., factory, but the designers clearly have their eye on northern New Jersey’s Teterboro Airport, the hub for business aviation in the New York area.
It will have a range of 7,000 nautical miles (about 12,950 km) at a speed of 0.85 Mach, which means it would be able to fly non-stop from Los Angeles to London. Continue reading →
Your jewelry box shouldn’t cost more than the jewelry it keeps so this one should be reserved for your most expensive pieces. It is made from dark wenge wood and is supported by four glowering golden gargoyles on the bottom with a fifth tiny gargoyle poised above the keyhole. It sells for a wallet-burning $4,000.
If you are too geeky for your girl and want to gift her a ring then you’ll have trouble choosing something that goes with your persona and also that should bring a smile to her face.
But USB Flash Drive Swarovski Crystal Engagement Ring is the best bet for you. Though diamonds are touted to be girl’s best friends, this ring too flaunts a big Swarovski crystal.
Though still in conceptual stage, this principle of this USB Flash Drive Swarovski Crystal Engagement Ring is that each of you can carry around pictures of each other or poems, credit card receipts. Continue reading →
The Stockholm, Sweden-based organization that issues Nobel prizes has ordered the Nobel Watch Co. to stop using the advertising slogan, “I didn’t get the Nobel Prize…But I got the Nobel watch.”
According to a release issued by The Nobel Watch Co., the Nobel Foundation sent the company a letter of warning telling them to cease and desist the use of the wording “Nobel Prize” in its slogan now and going forward.
According to the Nobel Watch Co., the company has “built its 15-year business and reputation on the slogan” and it has never been an issue. Continue reading →
Hogl, the renowned firm that specializes in Ladies shoes and footwear, showcased their autumn/winter crystal collection shoes made with Swarovski crystals during GDS 2008, the international event for shoes & accessories held in Düsseldorf.
These sparkling black shoes will give you perfect look with most of your dresses. These Swarovski crystal-studded stilettos have been tested in specialized laboratories.
Indeed, one pair of these shoes will give you hot look with a pair of jeans, black pants, and short skirts. Via Aving
Aquaplus Solutions has launched Aqua Jewels, a luxury bathroom faucet range designed for Bonomi by Marcel Wanders.
Internationally renowned for his collaborations with Droog Design, B&B Italia and Bisazza, multi-award winning Wanders has turned his attention to brassware design including bathroom faucets. The new Aqua Jewels luxury faucet range is characterized by the use of the diamond form throughout and includes basin, bidet, bath faucets and shower fixtures plus complementary accessories.
Each element is adorned with and operated by a chrome plated brass control cut in the shape of a diamond. This contrasts with the simple design of the brassware which is offered in two styles, plain polished or etched, which continues the diamond theme across the body of this luxury bathroom brassware. Aquaplus Solutions
Just recently the World’s Most Expensive Mobile Phone, the GoldVish “Piece Unique” was launched in London and here are some exclusive pictures of the same.
The mobile phone, which is part of the GoldVish collection, costs one million euro ($1.6 million).
The collection offers five different diamond upgrades made of at least 150 grams of 18 karat solid gold and mounted with VVS top Wesselton diamonds. Continue reading →
On the one hand, you can walk into just about any retail outlet and pick up a 1GB Apple iPod Shuffle for about fifty bucks.
On the other hand, you can participate in an auction for this one-off iDiamond iPod Shuffle and spend a heck of a lot more than that.
The ultra-bling version of Apple’s portable music player comes encrusted with 430 eye-catching diamonds and then the controls in the center are plated in solid 18k white and pink gold. Continue reading →
Check out the pictures of this futuristic Peugeot’s concept car. Each wheel is independently driven by an electric motor, allowing the Moovie to rotate on its own axis and squeeze into the tightest parking spots. To increase stability, the two side-wheels are tilted inwards under a ten degree angle.
The front-end conceals two small additional wheels which only operate as safety supports. In the future it could be possible to make such a vehicle self-balancing using gyroscopes and balance sensors. This is already employed on the Segway scooter and is suggested for the EMBRIO one-wheeled motorcycle concept.The Moovie concept car built by Peugeot has a length of just 2,3 metres (7.6 ft) and width and height of 1,5 metres (4.9 ft). Access is created by two large sliding doors placed in the centre of the hub-less side-wheels.
The Burj Al Arab Jumeirah resort in Dubai, is acknowledged as the best hotel in the world.
The stellar customer service starts the moment you land in Dubai, with a chauffeur picking you up in the Rolls Royce that will be yours for the duration of your stay. When you arrive at the breathtaking hotel which stands 321 meters tall in the shape of a sail, you are taken directly to one of the 202 suites where you are checked in, a service that guarantees your privacy.
Each sprawling suite is two levels, and has floor to ceiling windows providing breathtaking views of the Arabian Gulf. Some of the listed in room features are, a private elevator, private cinema, a rotating four-post canopy bed,a separate butler entrance and a study area with a library. Continue reading →
British aerospace firm Reaction Engines is currently working on a hypersonic aircraft that would herald a new era and bright future for commercial air travel at Mach 5 speeds.
With 50 per cent funding by the European Union, or about US$14 million, this project, if successfully launched, could slash travel times drastically, so a flight from Brussels to Sydney would take only about a little over four hours.
Codenamed the LAPCAT, short for Long-term Advanced Propulsion Concepts and Technologies, Reaction Engines has designed an A2 configuration jet with a seating capacity for 300 passengers that makes use of its in-house Scimitar engine which runs on liquid hydrogen.
Not only is this jet environmentally friendly, it is easy on your pocket as well, as the company expects average ticket prices to be comparable to the price of a Business class ticket today.
This flexible seating system, designed by Swedish furniture designer Jonas Wannfors for LYX, can be used either indoors or outdoors and consists of three pieces: straight, exchange and end.
The three modules can be pieced together in any which way to create a unique seating arrangement to best fit the desired space.
A popular style in the world of furniture and interior design, Scandinavian design is celebrated for its modern, innovative and sleek traits. Continue reading →
