What do you buy when you have everything?

Mike Cannon-Brookes has bought an Island. 

Mike Cannon-Brookes has bought an Island. 

This article has a bit of news in it but is mostly non-billionaire judgements on how billionaires spend their money.

Annie Cannon-Brookes has purchased an island.

The wife of tech billionaire Mike Cannon-Brookes plans to revitalise a cyclone-ravaged resort on the 147-hectare Dunk Island, Far North Queensland, which they purchased for $24 million. The resort, which has an existing 16-room hotel, golf course, and day spa has been closed and deserted since early 2011, after it was destroyed by Cyclone Yassi. 

“Annie has purchased the land with the intent to preserve its natural beauty for years to come,” a spokesperson for the couple said. 

Refurbishing a honeypot for the well-to-do in the name of preservation. How noble. Must billionaires insist on moralising doing billionaire things? Leave having a soul for those that have to wait for FarFetch to add the extra 15% off to all sale items. 

Life at rainbow’s end, where else is there to lean but hedonic nihilism? You must reach a certain threshold of wealth and lose the ability to feel. At least that’s what these purchases tell me. 

Private Islands

Oligarchs have been purchasing private islands since time in memoriam. It makes sense to want to ostracise yourself from a society that you can no longer relate to.

Trips to outer space

When earthly delights no longer suffice, the elite will cash their chips and book a ticket to outer space. 2021 was the year of shooting the wealthy into the void, with Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson both joyriding the stars. 

The Amazon CEO's Blue Origin’s New Shepard. Why is it shaped like a penis? That's between Bezos and Freud.

Bezos Blue Origin rocket first soared on the 52nd anniversary of the (alleged…) Apollo 11 moon landing. The Amazon CEO brought along a bevy of famous friends, including 82-year-old aviator Wally Funk, 90-year-old Star Trek actor William Shatner, and Good Morning America co-host Michael Strahan. 

Unnecessary donations to other billionaires 

Billionaires love nothing more than donating money to billion-dollar institutions. 

Remains

In 1987, The Chicago Tribune reported that Michael Jackson had placed a $1 million offer to buy the bones of Joseph Merrick (the ‘Elephant Man’). Shortly after his death, Merrick’s corpse was boiled and stripped of its flesh. His bleached remains were presented in a glass case at Queen Mary University, where the King of Pop reportedly spent hours gazing at Merrick’s remains during private viewings. 

“He would come and spend time on his own sitting next to the skeleton, obviously contemplating,” A geneticist at the University, Richard Trembath, said. 

Joseph Carey Merrick. Image shot 1889.

Some well-to-do have a thirst for the macabre. 

In 2007, Nicolas Cage outbid Leonardo Dicaprio for a US $276,000 Mongolian dinosaur skull. It was later discovered that the fossil was stolen, and Cage had to return it to US authorities.

In 2014, billionaire hedge fund manager Steve Cohen bought artist (and hack) Damien Hirst’s ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’, for a reported US $8 million. The artwork, which consists of a 14-foot tiger shark embalmed in formaldehyde, was commissioned by Charles Saatchi. 

It's worth noting that the same prat, who made his billions through insider trading and was once snapped choking his former wife Nigella Lawson in public, also paid the highest price ever for a sculpture: $141 million for a Giacometti piece that the artist is said to have made in a single night.

Damien Hirst's ‘The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living’

Truffles

Finally, somebody that knows how to spend their money. Macau casino owner Stanley Ho paid US$330,000 for two giant white truffles from Italy. The money raised from the sale went to the Institute of Cancer Research in London — Cacio E Pepe with a side of good karma. Mangia.

US$330,000 white truffle.

Memorabilia

This is where the elite and I see eye-to-eye. If I had money to burn I would be doing my dark bidding on every costume worn in Belle De Jour. 

In 2013, Elon Musk bought the Lotus Esprit car from the 1977 James Bond film The Spy Who Loved Me. In the film, the car transforms into a submarine. Back in ye' old days, a time before CGI, filmmakers built an Esprit without wheels to use in the underwater shots.

"I was disappointed to learn that it can't actually transform. What I'm going to do is upgrade it with a Tesla electric powertrain and try to make it transform for real," Musk said.

The Spy Who Loved Me, 1977.

Leonardo da Vinci's scribbles

In 1994, Bill Gates spent $30.8 million on Leonardo da Vinci's 'Codex Leicester', a 72-page document that contains the artist's sketches and ideas on astronomy, mechanics, botany, mathematics, and architecture.

“Even though, in the age of free Wikipedia entries and YouTube videos, it’s easier than ever to satisfy your curiosity. It’s ironic that we can be reminded about the wonders of modern life by a man who lived 500 years ago,” he wrote in a blog post.