Moscow’s Millionaire Fair Dances on Lenin’s Grave

Last Saturday, a vulgar display of excessive wealth began in Moscow, the city’s first Millionaire Fair. For a mere 1,000 rubles (around US$20 or US$35), one can enter the Crocus Expo International Exhibition Center and have a look at what mankind has produced for those for whom money is no object. Disgust at the horrid materialism of it all, though, is mitigated by the knowledge that two decades ago, such a thing was unthinkable. As awful as the crass commercialism of capitalism can be, it is preferable to endless queues for bread, shoes and nails, to say nothing of secret police, show trials and gulags.

In the land of the Red Star, where Lenin and Stalin murdered millions in the name of The People, dollar millionaires and would-be dollar millionaires browsed speedboats that retail for US$700,000, sat in bright yellow Hummers to see if they fit, and even purchased private islands. Derek Sauer, CEO of Independent Media, also organized the Russian Luxury Forum to discuss the business of selling high-end goods in Russia.

Whether anything of interest was said or whether anything was learned is hard to say. What is certain is that some people simply have too much money. Included in the Rich Guy’s wish list and available at the Fair are: Murmansk Island at $30 million, One-acre Green Estates landscape garden at $5 million, Bell six-seater helicopter for $2.5million, 23-carat diamond “peace pen” a bargain at $1.2 million, Turkmen stallion merely $1.5 million, Top Gun speedboat as mentioned at $700,000, Mercedes Maclaren SLR same as the boat for $700,000, 1926 Macallan Single Malt whisky just $50,000, Seven-seater outdoor whirlpool spa for $40,000, Laser hair therapy just $20,000.

And one man was in negotiations to buy “Moscow.” Apparently there are a bunch of islands, artificial of course, off the coast of Dubai shaped like the world. Whether the fellow could agree on the price with the seller of one of these 300 sandbars has yet to be determined. “They’re just piles of sand, but you can do what you want with them,” said Dmitry Antonov, a representative for the agent told The Times. And the Taj Mahal is just a pile of bricks.

Of course, the whole thing raises the question of what-if. What-if one’s own life came with a money-no-object entitlement? Money doesn’t buy happiness, of course, but it does buy off a great deal of misery. And yet, if the genie of the lamp existed, nothing would be more rewarding than to have the time and resources to some day walk into the Library of Congress and complain that one has already read all of it.

© Copyright 2005 by The Kensington Review, J. Myhre, Editor. No part of this publication may be reproduced without written consent.
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