In the late 1990s Christopher Rockefeller was married to a former Playboy Playmate, driving a Ferrari, and living in Los Angeles, where he had booked himself an entire floor at the Beverly Wilshire. After growing bored of having his picture taken beside blondes with sculpted abs by D-list paparazzi, the French-born heir to an oil fortune moved back east, and in 2000 he lived on Further Lane in East Hampton, where he enjoyed telling people about the Pissarro and the Chagall in his art collection and taking calls from President Bill Clinton on his cell phone.
Except that he didn’t live on Further Lane, he had no art collection to speak of, and he had probably never met Bill Clinton. He lodged in only one room at the Beverly Wilshire, not an entire floor, as he would tell 60 Minutes in 2002, and he stiffed the hotel for $60,000. The marriage to the Playmate—that might have been real.
And his name wasn’t Christopher Rockefeller. It was Christophe Rocancourt, and in 2003 he would be sentenced by a United States federal judge to 46 months imprisonment for wire fraud and scheming to defraud, and he was ordered to pay $1.2 million to people he had fleeced.
Rocancourt sustained his grift with a dizzying array of lies. One victim told 60 Minutes he had promised to help her financially— he was a Rockefeller, after all—but first he just needed a little bit of cash upfront. Then he disappeared.
Denne historien er fra May 2023-utgaven av Town & Country US.
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Denne historien er fra May 2023-utgaven av Town & Country US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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THE MASTER BUILDER
For the collector and philanthropist Amalia Amoedo, living with art and supporting the people who make it isn't just a choice it's a tradition. Is it any wonder she's known as Latin America's Peggy Guggenheim?
The ROTHSCHILD and the SNOWSTORM
Four decades after Jeannette May's remains were found on an Italian mountainside, the authorities have reopened the investigation into who or what-killed the former Lady de Rothschild.Was it a kidnapping? A mafia hit? Or have the rumors been wrong all along?
The WIZARD of MADISON
Suit up before stepping inside Giorgio Armani's new uptown Oz.
WHERE THE WILDLY EXPENSIVE THINGS ARE
In a small city in the Dutch hinterlands, sharp-elbowed dealers hunt the biggest game of all: billionaire collectors voracious for treasures from the last art fair that truly matters.
READ THE FINE PRINT
Nestled among the winding, narrow streets of Berkeley, California, which curve past a pastiche of architectural styles, including the material opulence of the spare modern mansions belonging to the tech elite, Susan Filter and Peter Koch's home stands apart.
Begin Here
Take a page from Sir Joseph Duveen, the man who taught America how to collect.
NOW YOU SEE HER
Bertha Russell would be so disappointed. When Carrie Coon, who plays the calculating social climber on The Gilded Age, sits down at the Regency Bar & Grill, just a few blocks and about 140 years from the fictional mansion where her character resides, it's the tail end of the restaurant's infamous power breakfast—a crucial error in timing for anyone hoping to rub elbows with New York City's ruling class.
Give Me Liberty!
Creative freedom, it turns out, is a very wise investment.
How Young Is Too Young to Start an Art Collection?
It will take more than just a trust fund to get them to sell you that painting.
Look Where You're Going
How many teenagers do you know who spend their free time doing this?
