Enrico di Portanova
| Enrico di Portanova | |
|---|---|
| Born | Los Angeles |
| 💀Died | 20 February 2000 Houston20 February 2000 |
| 🏳️ Nationality | American |
| 💼 Occupation | |
Baron Enrico di Portanova, known as “Ricky”, born in Los Angeles at an uncertain date, died February 28, 2000, in Houston, Texas, is an American heir of Italian descent, known for his social activities, his real estate properties, and his holidays.
Biography
Grandson of Italian Baron Paulo di Portanova, Enrico di Portanova was born in Los Angeles but raised by his father in Italy. He is heir through his mother, Lillie Cranz Cullen, to the fortune of his grandfather, Hugh Roy Cullen, an American oil magnate.
Following the death of this maternal grandfather in 1957, he left Rome and his activities in jewelry to claim his inheritance in Houston in the early 1960s. The consortium responsible for managing his grandfather's fortune begins by paying him a monthly annuity of 5,000 dollars. This eventually increased and reached $1.2 million per month at the end of the 1970s. His fortune was then estimated at $50 million.[1]
The baron and his younger brother Ugo, however, decide to sue the Cullen conglomerate, demanding a fairer share of their grandfather's billions. One of the biggest lawsuits ever in an inheritance case in the United States followed. Roy Cohn, the lawyer for the two brothers, claims two billion dollars. In 1984, a judge dismissed the trial after a friendly settlement had been reached with the Cullen Fund.
He died on February 28, 2000, at his property in Houston, certainly from cancer, at the age of 66, according to him. All his friends, however, agree that he was much older.[1]
Privacy
After a first marriage with the Yugoslav basketball player Ljuba Otanovic, from whom he divorced in 1972, he married a flight attendant, Sandra Hovas, for a second time, to form one of the most observed couples in the American jet set. The wedding took place in London in 19731.
The couple only travel in their private plane, a Lear Jet that the baron calls his taxi. The device is called Barefoot Contessa, a tribute to the film by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. In 1984, Enrico di Portanova confided in Charlotte Curtis of the New York Times: "We have so much baggage that our private plane is no longer enough, we send the servants with the baggage on regular lines".[1]
Owner of houses in Rome, Houston, and Acapulco, his life is dedicated to the pleasure of living and receiving in his residences. He is famous for the caviar tagliolini that he offers to his guests. He only drinks Dom Pérignon, and his motto is "Sun, sex and spaghetti".
The Houston Villa
After his marriage to Sandra, "Ricky" transforms his home in Houston. Originally a modest French-inspired pavilion, the house became one of the most extravagant in the Texan economic capital. To cool the gardens and the swimming pool, the property is completely covered with a glass protection. The interiors house a collection of animal sculptures: sphinxes, leopards, dolphins, jaguars. The candelabras are carried by statues of Nubian slaves.
The decoration of the different rooms comes from the Rococo style and from the French Grand Siècle, with paintings from the 18th century. One of the attractions of the place is the baron's snake: the animal responds to the name of Katharina.
The baron and the baroness like to give parties there. They are sometimes surprising, like a Christmas dinner with gospel choirs and camels roaming freely in the garden. During more intimate dinners, Ricky receives his guests in the style of Louis XV, cooking his own pasta with caviar, washed down with wines whose bottles bear a label that he has personally designed.
La Casa Arabesque
In 1975, Enrico di Portanova bought land and his private beach in Acapulco, Mexico, to build a villa he wanted spectacular. The works lasted from 1978 to 1983. They mobilized 1,500 workers under the direction of the architect Aurelio Muñoz Castillo.
Mediterranean in style, the Casa Arabesque is the largest villa built at the time in Acapulco:[1] it covers six thousand square meters, has twenty-eight bedrooms and twenty-six bathrooms for the guests. It also has four swimming pools. The terrace that covers the villa has a private helipad; a funicular connects the different levels of the house.
The ballroom being for the sole use of the baroness, the architect suggests that the baron build his private disco to avoid having to organize his parties, as he does at Armando's, a famous club in Acapulco. The decoration of this disco takes the aspect of the seabed.
During construction, the original plans are modified to increase the number of service rooms. The servants went from fifteen to forty to ensure the service of famous guests, more and more numerous and succeeding one another without interruption: Henry Kissinger, Roger Moore, Sylvester Stallone, Plácido Domingo, members of the international jet set… [1]
Famous for the celebrations there, the Arabesque villa is visible in License to Kill, a film in the James Bond series. The set for the shoot, in 1989, was kindly offered by the Portanovas.
The house contains very rich murals of women resembling a harem; the long wall sofas were decorated with stripped cushions and covered with leopard fur on many of them. To accompany the leopard decor, silver leopard statues resting on copper trees were placed on the floor where giant square cushions formed the basis of large circular glass tables that house a variety of statues, candle holders, and trays.[2]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Nemy, Enid (2000-03-04). "Baron Enrico di Portanova, 66, Flamboyant Member of Jet Set". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-09-01.
- ↑ Expansión, S.A. (Firm) (1998). "Quién = Who". Quién = Who. (in Spanish). ISSN 1405-8634. OCLC 62494686. Retrieved 2020-09-01.CS1 maint: Unrecognized language (link)
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