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If real life were to mimic a comic book universe, some rich people would still be making frivolous purchases, but they’d be in the name of either saving or destroying the planet. Bruce Wayne becomes Batman, a hero who’s main super human strength is his ability to spend copious amounts of cash on things like Kevlar cowls and cars that can only seat one person.
Tony Stark’s alter ego, Iron Man, prefers anything that goes ‘boom.’ In both cases, these lifestyle choices cost money. Lots of it.
Because the armed crusader thing is generally frowned upon in today’s actual world, those that have piles o’ cash and can afford to pay an accountant to worry for them when it comes to keeping their finances in order get to spend it on items that might seem a little ridiculous to most people. New York restaurant Serendipity 3 held the world record for the most expensive burger back in 2012 with its Le Burger Extravagant, because who wouldn’t want a quail egg plopped onto Japanese Wagyu beef with a bun dusted in gold and topped with caviar?
At $295 a pop, it started a trend of uber-burgers that continues today at places like Las Vegas’ Fleur and its $5,000 FleurBurger. Apparently for that price you get Kobe beef, foie gras, truffles and a really unoriginal name.
It might start with a beef patty, but things can escalate quickly from there. Why not order your truffled At that price, one of the features you’re paying for is length. That’s right – in the yachting world, size is kind of a big deal.
Of course, this particular yacht, the Azzam, is just one of many mini-cities on the water. Scraping together the capital to buy something like this is one thing, but don’t forget the day-to-day costs of keeping the things afloat: roughly $60 million. Per year. Cash like that might only buy you armoured shinguards in Bruce Wayne and Tony Starks’ worlds, but for most people that’s a whole lot of burgers, Extravagant or otherwise.
Heidsieck Monopole 1907
Everybody knows champagne is expensive. To be real champagne, and not just sparkling wine, it was to be made in the Champagne region of France, which is one of the reasons why it’s expensive — there are only so many vinyards in Champagne. And one of the more expensive brands is, Heidsieck & Co “Monopole.” You can expect to pay $200 or more for a bottle of the Diamant Bleu from a recent vintage.
Or, you could splurge a little and go for something a little older. Maybe a little rarer. Maybe a bottle that had once been destined for the Tsar of Russia, but spent a hundred years in the most exclusive wine cellar in the world.
If you have $275,000 to spare, maybe you could have a bottle of the Heidsieck Monopole Diamant Bleu 1907.
In 1916, a German U-boat sank the Swedish freighter Jönköping as it was carrying cargo to Russia. Amid the hold were a few crates of spirits destined for the imperial court of Tsar Nicholas II of Russia. The Germans commandeered the vessel in the Gulf of Finland and escorted all of the sailors off the ship before sinking it with a torpedo.
For 80 years, the ship lay at the bottom of the sea, 63 meters (207 feet) deep—a depth that happens to be the perfect resting place for a bottle of Champagne, with six atmospheres of pressure (the same as inside the bottle) at constant near-freezing temperatures, undisturbed and shielded from any source of light. The world’s greatest wine cellar.
When the ship was discovered in 1997, fewer than 2,000 bottles were recovered, and even fewer were in salable condition.
If you’re intending to actually drink the champagne and not just worry about whether or not something horrible is going to happen to your very expensive bottle, here what you can expect. The mousse will rise quickly to the top of a flute so you have to be careful when pouring it. If you want to smell the depths of the Baltic just lift a section of wax and sniff the cork, but there will not be even the hint of the sea in either the smell or taste of the champagne itself.
The wine itself will have intense aromas of gunflint and black rifle powder mixed with a briny note like roasted oysters. Then there were notes of graham cracker, burnt lemon oil, and flamed oranges. Finally, expect massive flavors of caramelized bananas, burnt citrus, and kerosene to provide an extremely long, salty finish.
Then expect to feel serious buyer’s remorse at having drunk over a quarter of a million dollars. Then again, if you are buying something like this, odds are you’re too rich to regret anything.
Source: What its Like to Sip a Century Old Champagne From a Shipwreck
Le Burger Extravagant
If downing a bottle of bubbly worth more than many houses has made you peckish, head on over to New York City and your regular table at the Serendipity 3 restaurant. Order Le Burger Extravagant, then sit back and enjoy.
Very soon, it will arrive at your table: Japanese Waygu beef, 10-herb white truffle butter, smoked Pacific sea salt, 18-month cheddar, shaved black truffles, a quail egg, and a white
truffle-buttered roll. When you’re done, lean back and clean the Waygu remnants from between your molars with the solid gold, diamond-encrusted toothpick that held the whole thing together. It’s practically a steal at only $300.
And if you’re still not sated, there’s always dessert. May we recommend the $1,000 sundae?
Sources: World’s Most Expensive Hamburger , Eight Most Expensive Burgers
Rhein II
Nowadays everybody has a camera on them pretty much all the time. Your average phone has a better camera built into it than you could buy not so long ago. You’d think that would make photography a less valued art, but you’d be so wrong.
The most expensive photograph ever sold was a three metre (10 feet) wide print of a German river. It went for $4.3 million. It’s called Rhine II, by Andreas Gursky. He is an artist of great reknown, known for landscapes. His images aren’t just captured, they are created. He plans them out, then he enhances them digitally.
But $4.3 million for a single print?
We could try to explain the appeal of it, but we’d get it wrong, so we’ll let someone who actually knows about these things do it. Florence Waters writes about art for the Telegraph:
“For all its apparent simplicity, the photograph is a statement of dedication to its craft. The late 1980s, when Gursky shot to attention, was a time when photography was first entering gallery spaces, and photographs were taking their place alongside paintings. Photography “as art”, at the time, was still brave and new, and the simplicity of this image shows a great deal of confidence in its effectiveness and potential for creating atmospheric, hyper-real scenarios that in turn teach us to see – and read – the world around us anew. The scale, attention to colour and form of his photography can be read as a deliberate challenge to painting’s status as a higher art form. On top of that, Gursky’s images are extraordinary technical accomplishments, which take months to set up in advance, and require a lot of digital doctoring to get just right.”
I could not have said it better myself.
Sources: Why is Andreas Gurskys Rhine II the most expensive photograph ,
The Walking Man
Alberto Giacometti is considered one of the most important artists of the 20th century. He worked in many media, but his sculptures are what he’s best known for, in particular his series of tall, thin human figures in bronze. The all seem to capture a sense of motion, which he sees as ‘a succession of moments of stillness’.
One of his works, called The Walking Man, fetched $104.3 million from an anonymous buyer.
The 6-foot-tall bronze depicts a wiry man in mid-stride, his right foot jutting forward, his head erect and his arms hanging at his side. The price breaks the existing $104.2 million auction record, set six years ago at Sotheby’s, for Pablo Picasso’s 1906 portrait “Boy With a Pipe,” whose buyer also remains unknown.
Who knows, maybe they’re both displayed at the same place now. Maybe on somebody’s giant yacht.
Sources: Kroller Muller , NPR
Chopard Blue Diamond
If Tony Stark ever does marry Pepper Potts, this is the ring she needs. The Chopard Blue Diamond Ring is the only ring that can truly say “sorry for all the crap I put you through.”
Set with an enormous, nine carat, oval-shaped blue diamond, the ring also has diamond shoulders and an 18k white gold band paved with diamonds. It’s made by Chopard, a Swiss company specializing in really luxurious jewelry. Chopard is known for its collection of some of the most beautiful pieces of jewelry and watches. The company is also associated with the Cannes Film Festival and each year dresses celebrities in their jewelry pieces, for the red carpet events.
Blue diamond is among the most expensive in the world. It is found among boron deposits, from whence it derives its shade.
It is the world’s most expensive ring, valued at $16.26 million.
But hey, Pepper’s worth it, Iron Man.
Sources: Most Expensive Journal
The Azzam
Azzam is an Arabic word that means “dedication.” It’s also the world’s biggest yacht.
Longer than 12 double-decker buses, not only is Azzam the biggest superyacht, it is also one of the fastest. The 94,000 horsepower vessel could reach speeds of more than 30 knots, or 35mph. At her widest point, known as the beam, Azzam measures 68.2ft, while her hull is 15.8ft deep.
She’s heavy, with a gross tonnage of 14,000GT – roughly equivalent to 1,750 adult African elephants.
Azzam’s fuel tank can hold one million litres of diesel. That’s a lot of fuel. Fortunately, the owner of this particular ship has a direct line to the source: he’s Sheikh Khalifa bin Zayed al-Nayan, President of the United Arab Emirates and Emir of Abu Dhabi.
The cost of this enormous status symbol is over $600 million, but don’t worry about the Sheikh, he’s worth over $15 billion, so he can afford it. Since he has two brothers who also have yachts that rank in the world’s ten largest, the real question is: can he afford not to have this boat?
Designed by Nauta Yachts in Italy and constructed by German company Lürssen Yachts, the Azzam is almost two football fields long and rivals the size of some cruise ships. It took four years to complete from concept to construction.
The interior specifics are pretty hush hush, but there are 30 cabins set aside for the 60 crew, another 18 guest cabins for 36 of the Sheikh’s closest friends, a bullet proof master suite, a submarine bay, and a missile defense system. Because hey, you never know when the owner of the second largest yacht might be itching for that top spot again.
(Incidentally, the second largest yacht is owned by the Russian business man Roman Abramovich, owner of the Chelsea Football Club and incredibly close personal friend to Vladimir Putin. His yacht, the Eclipse, is not known to be equipped with missiles.)
Source: Super Yacht Fan
Extinct Huia Bird Feather
Maybe you don’t have to overcompensate for anything, so a huge boat isn’t your thing. Maybe instead you’d like to own an irreplaceable piece of history that can serve as a constant reminder of the fragility of our existence. Like, say the pretty brown and white feather of an extinct bird.
In 2010 one such feather fetched $7,000. Feathers like it were traditionally used to adorn Maori chiefs, but the huia bird and has not been seen since 1907 is thought to be extinct.
The previous record price for a single feather was reached when one from a bald eagle sold at a US auction for $2,800 .
Then again, maybe you don’t feel like spending the money. In 2012, two 123-year-old huia feathers were stolen from the back of a stuffed bird at a museum.
Sources: Most Expensive Feather , Precious Feathers Stolen
Spin Jeans by Damien Hirst
When you really need people to know just how rich you are, get off your ass and drop $27,000 for a pair of Spin Jeans. These Levis 501’s were customized by modern art superstar and world’s richest living artist Damien Hirst himself. The British artist used his famous Spin technique to make the distinctive swirl pattern on them.
Better act fast, though, only 8 pairs were made, and I just put holes in the knees of mine playing Frisbee with Mark Zukerberg and Elon Musk.
It’s not my fault, nobody told me you aren’t actually supposed to wear them.
Source: Spin Jeans
iPhone 3GS Supreme Rose by Stuart Hughes
For a while, the world’s most expensive phone was the$2.97 million iPhone 3GS Supreme Rose, with bezel handmade from platinum set with 130 individual .75 flawless diamonds which total 97.5ct, 4 pink baguette diamonds each weighing 2.5cts, a rear section formed with 112 grams of 18ct rose gold along with its rose gold Apple logo and 53 diamonds, and a main navigation button consisting of a single cut 7.1ct diamond settled in an 18ct rose gold mount. Also included: a luxurious hand finished wallet made from real Ostrich foot.
But you know how it is with technology these days. No sooner have you got your apps all set up on your three million dollar phone when Apple goes and comes out with a newer model.
Welcome the $8.1 million iPhone 4S Elite Gold, the most expensive phone in the world. The bezel is handmade from rose with approximately 500 individual flawless diamonds which total over 100ct.The rear section is formed using 24ct gold with the added touch of its 24ct gold Apple logo and 53 diamonds. The main navigation is made from gold which holds a single cut 8.6ct diamond. Also included is a rare 7.4ct single cut Flawless pink diamond which can replace the existing one. The chest is made from solid Platinum with polished pieces of original Dinosaur bone from the T-REX along with rare stones such as Opal ,Pietersite, Charoite , Rutile Quartz ,Star Sunstone .The handset is 64gb and limited edition of only 2 to be ever made.
And I went and dropped mine in the toilet in Waren Buffet’s beach house, so I’ll be looking to get the other one as a replacement, so act fast if you want it first.
Spurce: Stuart Hughes
Parking in Manhattan
“It’s for someone who wants complete privacy,” said Prudential Douglas Elliman Vice Chairman Dolly Lenz about the world’s most expensive parking spot, located in a Manhattan condo building. “You can drive in and not be seen again. It’s for the type of person who finds that attractive. It could be a celebrity or a business person who is camera shy.”
All you need is a cool million dollars, and the hot space –measuring about 12 feet wide, 23 feet long and more than 15 feet high — could be yours. You may need to spend another $39 million for the 8,000 square-foot duplex penthouse, with a private 3,000 square-foot terrace, in the same building. The parking spot will have its own deed and sales contract, and be charged maintenance fees, just as a condo would.
The parking space isn’t the only amenity: the shower water will be pumped full of vitamin C and aloe, and the apartment will have heat reflexology flooring. The lighting patterns and air quality in the building are also designed to provide its residents with a better night’s rest.
Source: $1 Million Parking Space , World’s Most Expensive Parking Spots
Story by Jay Moon
Sources
- 25 Most Expensive Things In The World
- Things rich people do: buy insanely expensive (and ridiculous) stuff
- A Gluttonous Look at 8 of the Most Expensive Burgers Ever
- Le Burger Extravagant named world’s most expensive hamburger
- Move over Abramovich: Meet ‘Azzam’, the world’s largest, fastest superyacht
