Monthly Archives: March 2011

Luxury in the future… by Corning

  

AP Images

By Uri Friedman at the Atlantic Wire

When you think of luxury brands, what comes to mind? Louis Vuitton? Dom Pérignon? Christian Dior?
All three–and over fifty others–are owned by Paris-based LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton. What’s more, the luxury goods conglomerate just purchased Bulgari, the high-end Italian jeweller and watchmaker, for more than $5 billion, and is now circling Hermés, a French business famous for its silk scarves and handmade handbags.

Over the past couple decades, LVMH CEO Bernard Arnault has catapulted the company he founded into competition with other luxury mega-conglomerates like PPR and Richemont through a series of aggressive acquisitions, becoming the richest man in France and the luxury world’s “grand master” and “most influential tastemaker” in the process.

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by AFP. LONDON — Pablo Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust, the world’s most expensive painting, was to go on display Monday for the first time in Britain at London’s Tate Modern museum. The 1932 painting set a world record when it was snapped up by a mystery bidder for $106.5 million (76.2 million euros) at New York’s Christie’s auction house last May.

It will be the first time the painting has been displayed anywhere since 1961 and prompted the famous London museum to create a new Pablo Picasso room to house the loaned work.

“This is an outstanding painting by Picasso and I am delighted that through the generosity of the lender we are able to bring it to the British public for the first time,” said Tate Director Nicholas Serota.

The painting depicts the Spanish artist’s lover and muse, Marie-Therese Walter, lying nude with the painter looking on. Picasso met Walter when he was 45 and she was 17 outside the Galeries Lafayette in Paris in 1927, while he was still married to Olga Khoklova.

bonus video : World Record: Picasso’s Nude, Green Leaves and Bust sells for $106.5 Million at Christie’s

  

By Astrid Wendlandt and Ian Simpson

A giant suitcase for Louis Vuitton is on display outside a Louis Vuitton store in Shanghai

 PARIS/MILAN (Reuters) – France’s LVMH will take over Italy’s Bulgari in a 3.7 billion euros ($5.19 billion) deal to add luster to the No.1 luxury group’s jewelry business and bring it more exposure to emerging markets.

The offer, which priced Bulgari’s shares at a 60 percent premium to its average level over the last month, could herald the return of consolidation in the luxury market, which bounced back from the 2009 slump much faster than analysts expected.

Bulgari will benefit from LVMH’s global retail network, improve margins through cost-sharing and help the luxury group close the gap with bigger watch and jewelry companies Richemont (CFR.VX), whose shares rose 2.9 percent, and Swatch (UHR.VX).

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By Nicole Cotroneo

On December, Shangri-La opened its first property in Paris, which is also its first in Europe. And it seems they’re staking their claim on the continent Napoleon-style: with a hotel that’s small in size but exceedingly grand. The most intimate of all 69 Shangri-La hotels, the Paris property was once the private home of Prince Roland Bonaparte, the grand-nephew of Napoleon. Built in 1896, the restored palace now has Empire-style interiors by designer Pierre-Yves Rochon (who worked on another little Paris hotel, the Four Seasons Hotel George V).

With 81 rooms, including 27 suites, the hotel’s most lavish quarters are rather difficult to choose. La Suite Imperiale was Roland’s private apartment and maintains opulent original moldings and high ceilings. It has a private dressing room and a balcony overlooking the Place d’lena. Then there’s La Suite Panoramique, with a huge wraparound terrace capturing sweeping views of the Eiffel Tower and the Seine.

Located near the Trocadero in the 16th arrondissement, Shangri-La Paris is just a short walk to the popular Christmas Market in the Jardins du Trocadero — a little holiday village with over a hundred stalls selling food and trinkets through December. Of course, in warmer months, you’ll want to spend time in the hotel’s own private gardens, designed by a star urban landscaper who’s also worked on the Tuileries and Trianon Palace. The gardens will have 1,500 plants, including “Asian exotic” and rare species, inspired by Prince Roland’s own love of botany (he kept the world’s largest private herbarium, later relocated to Lyon).

On a recent visit to New York, one of Shangri-La’s higher-ups told globorati they may never recover the money they’ve put into their Paris palace. Sounds like the kind of vanity project Napoleon would have approved.

bonus video: Heather Secrets of Parisvisits the newly-opened Shangri-La Paris Hotel