Table of contents for 14 - The Discovery Issue in BILLIONAIRE

There is a growing trend towards authenticity. Back to what is real. Whether it’s the re-awakening of our passions or a drive to go back to the land, there is a movement that I would argue is unstoppable. I believe it to be unstoppable because technology — and by this I mean robotics — will take over many of the menial (and not-so-menial) jobs in our lives, freeing us up to do other things. We will have more free time. And that means more time with friends, family and, indeed, on our own. We are heading into an era of self-exploration and this will bring about great challenges for many. Our society for too long has interpreted being busy as a good thing. Successful people are busy people. They have…

When producer James Cameron’s film Alita: Battle Angel is released this winter, it will no doubt be characterised by many as fantastical. It is, after all, the story of a cyborg found discovered in a junkyard: a blend of human and machine that also turns out to be a deadly assassin. The ‘replicants’ of Ridley Scott’s recent Blade Runner 2049 proved no less challenging. Indeed, in most visions of a cyborg future, the marriage of flesh and mechanics is portrayed as a considerable improvement on flesh alone, but with dystopian overtones. But this sci-fi is on its way to becoming fact. “We’ve long begun the process [of merging man and machine] — we have pacemakers, cochlear implants and the like,” says Prof Kevin Warwick of the University of Coventry, a…

It’s interesting that Jean-Michel Gathy, the principal designer at architectural practice Denniston, describes himself as “incredibly casual”. As arguably the most revered architect of the luxury hospitality world, his designs and creations are anything but. His clientele reads like a who’s who of the hotel world; including Cheval Blanc, Aman Resorts, Four Seasons, St Regis, Mandarin Oriental One & Only and many more. He also designs for private clients, who number among the richest and most powerful individuals on the planet. “Our work is sometimes dramatic, sometimes intimate, but always charismatic. It’s exactly my personality. I’m a true romantic in the old-fashioned way. I like drama such as big parties, but I’m also very private.”— Jean-Michel Gathy. Here, he describes the philosophy behind his work. What is the philosophy of…

Iwan Wirth reclines in a chair, jovial, pink-cheeked, glass of wine in hand. Dapper in red trousers and an unbuttoned shirt, he’s a man remarkably at ease given the timing of our interview. Outside, the hubbub is reaching a deafening crescendo as the launch party for Hauser & Wirth’s new gallery in Hong Kong gets into full swing. But if he’s missing the party, he doesn’t show it. And that says a lot about his approach to life and work — it’s always been people first, and business as a by-product. “Of course, we’re in the business of selling art, but the idea of simply running some shops wouldn’t make sense,” he explains. “It’s a very clear focus on artists throughout. Before we take a space, before we take a…

Leaving San Pedro de Atacama, Chile, one looks up towards Licancabur, the ‘mountain of the people’, a 5,916m-high extinct volcano on the border with Bolivia. Its shape is the epitome of what a volcano should look like, suggesting great adventures and unspoilt landscapes ahead. Up 2,000m, the Chilean tar road transforms into a heavy dirt road; the air gets even thinner as we approach Hito Cajón border control at 4,480m. All around us, the desolate altiplano of South Lipez fills the horizon with bold colours: ochre, ferric red, purple and intense white. White and intense altitudes, as it turns out, will be the common denominator of our road trip. In this mineral kingdom the size of Israel, white continuously plays a trompe l’oeil effect: everywhere seems to suggest snow when…

Thirty years ago, Rohan Vos, a South African who made his money from auto parts, started buying old train engines and carriages, restoring them to former golden-age glories. A latecomer to the world of trains, Vos resurrected his first locomotive into the luxury class in 1986 and was hooked. Now, his luxury train company, Rovos Rail, offers four trains, the oldest, Tiffany, dating back to 1894. Setting off from Pretoria or Cape Town, Durban or Victoria Falls, trains traverse five African countries: 3,568 miles of interminable savannah; numerous termite mounds; scattered inselbergs (rocky outcrops); big skies; far horizons; rivers; and lots of waving children. And it’s platinum, five-star, high-carat, flawless diamond service on a single-gauge track all the way. Each passenger is given a pair of plastic goggles, so you…

Xiangyu He 1600g Gold, 62g Protein (Ed: ⅓) (2014-15) This is one of the newest pieces in my collection. I made a quick decision to acquire it at Art Basel Unlimited 2018. The one egg makes you stop and think: “what is it doing there?” In fact, the egg represents the one-child policy in China. Reversing the value of the egg towards the golden egg ‘tray’ also questions the authenticity of mass consumers today. Zhao Zhao Starry Sky (2014) I see two things: one, violence; and two, Bitcoin. It wouldn’t surprise me if it were intentional, since his art is always a social commentary. Depicted is the moment that the bullet passes through the glass. Instantaneous, shattering and explosive. This conceptualises how China is a powerful country and has an…

In his new book, 21 Lessons for the 21st Century, Yuval Noah Harari offers some chilling predictions about the challenges that humans will face in the future. His overriding message is to not get bogged down in the immediate demands on our attention: Trump, Brexit, Russia, trade wars, tensions around immigration and so on. Instead we must acknowledge a coming post-truth era, the Sapiens author says, against which today’s election-rigging scandals will pale in comparison. In future, using data gathered from our every online move, sophisticated AI will be able to sell us anything from household appliances to political ideologies. Humanity’s power lies in creating and believing fictions, but future generations will depend on being able to tell fact from fiction; to amass real knowledge; to make sense of information;…

Imagine the cost of the ticket, if, every time you flew between New York and London, the jet had to be thrown away. That was the case with space launches up until a few months ago. But when Elon Musk launched and landed SpaceX’s partially reusable Falcon 9 — including Block 5, a vehicle to carry humans to space — it marked a new era of rocket recycling, and a key step towards making space cheaper, therefore more accessible, for more than just a handful. Other innovations in space technology will help to significantly reduce the cost per unit, say experts, buoyed by massive investments from figures such as Elon Musk of Tesla, Jeff Bezos of Blue Origin and Virgin’s Richard Branson, to boost the industry. Traditionally, satellites could only…

Humans have always had an enduring fascination with the Universe and the Heavens. But we’re now on the cusp of an unprecedented era of space exploration where we can increasingly apply fact to science-fiction. Space tycoons like Elon Musk and Jeff Bezos are putting space travel firmly into the grasp of our generation. It is a subject inspiring many industries, including the arts. Now a globemaker from Germany has decided to map the surface of Mars, the Moon, Venus and beyond. Michael Plichta stumbled across a traditionally crafted moon globe created by Paul Raeth from 1963 at a flea market. He looked for globes showing the surface of Mars, and when he found there were none, he decided to create his own. Plichta’s handcrafted globes show, in intimate detail, the…

It started when Charlotte Casiraghi met philosophy teacher Robert Maggiori in high school, changing the way she looked at life itself. A few years later, together with Joseph Cohen and Raphael Zagury-Orly, the quarto created the think tank Les Rencontres Philosophiques de Monaco, with the aim of providing a platform for the discipline. They discuss contemporary issues and new publications in the field of philosophy. Working hand in hand with schools, and the French ministry of education, Rencontres organises workshops and gatherings around an annual theme. The editorial team also publishes quality books and mentors a handful of students in writing their end-of-year essay. Earlier this year, Casiraghi and Maggiori published a Kindle book called Archipel des Passions (Archipelago of the Passions). It is a series of dialogues between the…

I first went to Zululand, in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa, when I was a child. I went with my parents to go and hear David Rattray speak about the Anglo-Zulu War of 1879 at the infamous Isandlwana. Rattray was a famous raconteur; people from all over the world would travel to Rorke’s Drift to hear his account of the battles. We were so moved by Rattray, the history and the moment that we spontaneously swam across the flooding Buffalo River in solidarity with both sides of the battle. I returned to Rorke’s Drift this year for the first time since my childhood because of a serendipitous meeting in London with Robin Woodhead, chairman of Sotheby’s International. Woodhead is deeply passionate about Zululand and spoke to me about the foundation that Rattray…

Walk into the Amsterdam home of Willem Van Gogh, great-grand-nephew of Vincent Van Gogh, and you might be surprised to see not a single artwork by his famous ancestor on the walls. “I grew up with not one painting; no other family member has one,” says Willem, talking at the Hong Kong Private Museum Conference. “Everything is out of the hands of the family, and that’s good, because we can all enjoy Vincent’s art, exactly how he would have wanted it.” The story of how the Van Gogh family came to successfully carry out the dead artist’s wishes is a fascinating one, especially as Van Gogh was an unknown during his lifetime, only selling one painting before he died. “It’s amazing that a totally unknown painter who sold one painting…

An unusual trend is evident in Britain’s countryside. Vast tracts of land have been purchased only for nature to take over. Chunks of the crowded, farmed and village patchwork of Britain are gradually being ‘wilded’ by estates: there is the Wilderness Reserve in Suffolk; Wildland and Alladale Wilderness Reserve in the Scottish Highlands; and Knepp Wildlands in Suffolk. Behind these ‘wild’ names are wealthy backers: philanthropists and idealists who are embarking on projects that will last long beyond their own lives. “We call it wildlands philanthropy,” explains Paul Lister, self-described “custodian” of Alladale Wilderness Reserve and founder of The European Nature Trust. Paul Lister plans to restore wolves, Scotland’s original apex predator, in a 50,000-acre enclosed area in Alladale. Returning the food chain to its natural order is the ultimate…

It’s one of those rare places that makes you feel at once humble and empowered. Yangshuo, with its UNESCO-protected karst mountain range, is another world, another planet. Driving through the verdant landscape, the mountains rise on all sides as far as the eye can see, like enormous silent sentries. They have watched the world come and go for 200 million years or so, and they’re not going anywhere. Local entrepreneur Ms Luo, was so opposed to the destruction of this historic icon that she led a group to physically block the building in protest. It worked, and this piece of architectural history remained intact. It’s a suitable backdrop for a story of immovability, determination and conservation at any cost, which forms the basis of Alila Hotel’s most poetic property. On…

Walk along Burlington Gardens, in London’s Mayfair, to the corner with Old Bond Street and, once it’s pointed out to you, the fascia of one building may strike you as an especially intriguing dip in the city’s retail past. There stands some Gothic Revival architecture built in 1926, the ornate, colourful Arts and Crafts stone work detailing the three Nativity kings who delivered frankincense and myrrh. That’s revealing, because this overlooked, department-storesized building was the headquarters for Atkinsons. The fact that this name will be lost to most (and the building overlooked by most) is a shame, especially for anyone interested in the history of fragrance, because Atkinsons was once Britain’s pre-eminent maker of fragrances. One James Atkinson launched the company back in 1799. James Atkinson’s clients included Beau Brummell…

The crowd at Milan’s Salone del Mobile isn’t easy to please. It is used to electrifying exhibitions, accustomed to delectable pop-ups, experiencing alluring launches and thrilling parties that are ten-a-penny. But among the creative offerings that littered the EuroCucina kitchen exhibition earlier this year, there was one that generated a genuine murmur of excitement from the design crowd. Gaggenau created a pop-up that felt more like a stylish friend’s apartment than anything commercial. Focused entirely around the open-plan kitchen, it boasted an entrance area, garage, living space and garden, all united and interconnected with quiet walkways, natural light and plenty of authentic details. The Gaggenau wine-cooler cabinets allow every bottle to be cooled individually thanks to multiple climate zones. This means you can store precious bottles of red alongside that…

Whenever I’m introduced as a wildlife photographer, the most common question is: “Have you had lots of close calls with dangerous animals?” Many of my peers are constantly frustrated, feeling the public should be asking us about species behaviour, our technical workflows, or how they can help in protecting wild spaces. However, I love it. There’s an innate sense of discovery naturally interwoven into the question: “Tell me about wild spaces and places.” It instantly opens the conversation to storytelling, an opportunity for me to bring to the fore our most cherished memories. The most recent of which was a trip to the Odzala National Park, deep in the Congo Basin. Although I’d originally been assigned to find and photograph the western lowland gorillas, it was the sense of place…

It’s not every day you discover a new dinosaur species, let alone three. But during a recent expedition into Mongolia’s Gobi Desert led by The Explorers Club, scientists identified bones from an ostrich-type dinosaur, a turtle-like dinosaur and the neck vertebrae from an unknown dinosaur from 70 million years ago. These discoveries went along with more than 250 new fossil locations, five entirely new areas previously not known to contain fossils, and hundreds of fossilised bones, including those of mammals, which were not previously known to have existed in the area. “It was a game-changer. Palaeontologists can redraw the geological map with greater precision, which has a ripple effect on other questions that are being contemplated, from climate change to finding water on Mars.” — Michael Barth, Explorers Club. It…

It is one thing to find oneself suspended upside down in a fighter jet at 600km/h; and quite another to find oneself in that position and just 2m away from the wingtip of another fighter jet. “It’s the way I like to fly,” says Jacques ‘Speedy’ Bothelin, founder and team leader of the Breitling Jet Team, based in Dijon, France. It is Europe’s only professional civilian aerobatic jet team and one of the few ready to take a passenger by special arrangement through some manoeuvres. While a fighter-jet experience may be a commonplace ‘red-letter-day’ experience, being taken through loops, barrel rolls and close-formation flying is not. “I mean,” Bothelin adds, “I could have switched to an airline job, perhaps, but this is the difference between flying a racing car and…

For thousands of years, camphor trees have flourished in China’s Jianxi province. This gnarly, majestic, species can reach up to 10ft and, according to Taoist mythology, have sacred souls. When Ma Dadong, a young entrepreneur, returned to his native village in Jianxi in 2002, he heard of plans to raze a nearby ancient camphor forest and village dating back to the Ming dynasty to build a reservoir. He couldn’t bear the thought. “For more than 2,000 years they have been alive, even before the first Chinese Emperor Qin Shihuang,” says Ma. “It can blow your mind to think these ancient trees and houses might disappear in a snap of your fingers.” Ma, a Taoist, always had great respect for the ancient forest, and quotes the philosophy of Zhuangzi: beauty resides…

Billionaire Vitaly Malkin is an unlikely campaigner against an unlikely subject. He’s a physicist by training, before turning personal computer entrepreneur in Perestroika-era Soviet Union. Malkin then established what would become one of the country’s biggest private banks; dabbled in the country’s oil-and-gas boom; and became one of Russia’s richest men, and one of its senators, along the way. In an unlikely move for an oligarch, he’s spent the last decade researching and writing a book on the contradictions in and catastrophes arising from religious belief, notably Christianity, Islam and Judaism (he’s from a Jewish family himself). And, more specifically, the social control that has arisen from it. The result, Dangerous Illusions (Arcadia Books), is, he says, a manifesto, aiming not to add to a debate among the intelligentsia, but…

Travel has the power to widen our perspective of the world and, for some, it can be a life-changing experience. In the case of German artist Ulrike Arnold, a visit to the caves in Lascaux in the Dordogne and the ochre pits in Provence at the age of 21 was a turning point. Coming face to face with Palaeolithic rock drawings was a eureka moment that ignited a passion for creating art using only pigments from rocks, minerals and soil. Since 1991, she has created 15 rock paintings in situ in Arizona, Colorado, Utah, New Mexico, India and Tenerife. Arnold has been given a rare opportunity to paint with meteorite dust obtained from five sites across four continents. With bare hands, she scoops out the dark-grey metallic particles shimmering under…

As Winston Churchill once said: ‘No hour of life is wasted that is spent in the saddle,’” quotes Jodie Kidd. It is no secret that the former supermodel, racing driver and British equestrian polo player is passionate about horses. But she is about to fulfil a life-long dream: to lead a guided safari on horseback through the wilds of Botswana. “I love animals and nature, and riding horses is in my blood [she is the daughter of former showjumper Johnny Kidd]. Riding across the mighty Okavango Delta, being so close to nature and seeing it all on horseback is something I’ve always dreamed of doing. It will truly be a magical and unique experience, I can’t wait,” she enthuses over an emailed conversation. The trip will take place in partnership…

It was by pure accident that Pavarotti, the world-famous operatic tenor, took up painting. After starring as painter Mario Cavaradossi in the opera Tosca in the 1980s, a friend gave him a box of paints at the end of the show as a memento. “Luciano told me he looked at this box for a couple of days because he didn’t know what to do with it. He had never painted in his life,” recalls his widow, Nicoletta Pavarotti, over the telephone from her home in Modena, Italy. “So, one day he just decided to start. He said it unleashed a kind of desire inside of him that he couldn’t stop: it was paint, paint, paint, day and night, for many, many weeks.” “He had a childish way of painting, but…

In June, chef Massimo Bottura’s Osteria Francescana reclaimed the hugely coveted top spot in the always contentious list of the World’s 50 Best Restaurants. The Modena-based maestro crafts dishes of remarkable finesse, some of which have become culinary icons such as ‘Oops! I dropped the lemon tart’, or his unique ‘Five ages of Parmigiano Reggiano in different temperatures and textures’. He explains: “This dish is a tone poem expressing the extraordinary qualities of one ingredient: Parmigiano Reggiano. Five aged Parmigiano Reggiano cheeses — 24, 30, 36, 40 and 50 months — are transformed into hot, cold, soft, crunchy and creamy elements to create an abstract portrait of the Emilian landscape, seen from 10km away.” These textures are translated into a 24-month demi-soufflé; a 30-month sauce; a 36-month foam; 40-month galette;…

Just a few months before the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805, tragedy befell Madame Barbe-Nicole Clicquot. Her beloved husband Nicolas was taken ill and died within the space of just two weeks, leaving the 27-year-old a widow and a single mother to a three-year-old daughter. Madame Clicquot was a wealthy aristocrat living in the elegant city of Reims in France’s Champagne region. With her husband’s passing, it was entirely expected that she would raise her daughter amid the comfort of the life afforded by her status. Her father was, at one stage, mayor of Reims, while the family home had hosted the self-proclaimed emperor Napoleon and his consort Joséphine. No one could ever have imagined that Madame Clicquot would have turned convention and received wisdom on its head by deciding…