Fancy an elephant for Christmas? Then head over to Russia!!

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Diamonds, art work or an elephant for a Christmas present? Welcome to the fair for millionaires

 

Last updated at 20:18pm on 24th November 2007 Comments

Pity the busy Russian millionaire with no time to buy it all. Diamonds, helicopters, automobiles and art are all for the taking. But what about an elephant for his daughter's birthday?

A service now in Moscow - home to the world's second highest concentration of millionaires after New York - is set up to cater to the whims of a growing class of people with huge wealth but little time.

In its first year in Moscow the firm has taken clients past the velvet rope at exclusive night-clubs, landed hard-to-get table reservations in some of the world's most fashionable restaurants, and bought pet dogs.

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Visitors crowd around a paisly-incrusted Mercedes Benz at the show in Moscow

 

"We had one client ask us to help find an elephant for an outdoor birthday party," said Irina Volskaya, president of Quintessentially Russia, part of a worldwide private concierge service based in London.

In Russia, where government statistics say nearly one third of the country's 142 million people subsist on less than £100 a month, the firm's services can be secured for an annual subscription fee of £2,500.

"We provide lifestyle management for exclusive clients around the world. Anything that doesn't break the law," Volskaya said.

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A visitor sits on a Jerry Convington motorcycle at the luxury goods fair

 

Lifestyle management for Russia's wealthy is a rapidly flourishing sector as a small sliver of the population profits as the country rides an economic boom fuelled by high world prices for its main exports, oil and gas.

According to Forbes magazine, Moscow has more billionaires than London, and is second only to New York. Meanwhile, the average Russian income is about £2,500 a year. Residents in small towns and villages earn even less.

Volskaya's firm was one of just hundreds of exhibitors at the Moscow Millionaire Fair, an annual event where firms offering luxury goods showcase their lavish products -- at times following the dictum "the more extravagant the better".

Trinkets for sale at the fair included a £250 bottle of vodka, a diamond-encrusted Mercedes car and a coffee table carved out of mammoth tusk. "We're here because we want to see what the reaction is to our product," said Gary Weissberg, Director of New Business Development at Lighthouse, a company that makes home televisions nearly 12 feet across.

"We were thinking that it would be good poolside, so that the Dads don't have to go in once the football games start," said Weissberg as two young Russian women swayed in front of a video game on the 154 inch screen.

Other high-end products at the fair included a £125,000 CD player and a life-sized reproduction of Rembrandt's Night Watch made out of porcelain bath tiles.

One vendor was asking £500,000 for a set of jewel-encrusted car wheels -- though they did come with a Bentley coupe and a year's worth of round-the-clock security thrown in for good measure.

"Honestly, I've seen very few millionaires here," said Leila Usubova, a fair attendee who said she was not a millionaire, from Kazan, a city 490 miles east of Moscow. "Mostly I think they're people who just want to be millionaires."F