Italian Count Outed As Buyer of Cut-Price Luggala Estate
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The Sunday Times October 27, 2019 3 NEWS Italian count SOTHEBY’S REALTY/SWNS.COM outed as buyer of cut-price Luggala estate Colin Coyle and John Burns and two years ago sold a collection of drawings by Michelangelo, Rubens, The American wife of a secretive Italian Degas and Goya to California’s Getty count has set up a company named Museum for $100m (€90m). Luggala Estate Ltd, raising speculation The count comes from a noble that they are the new owners of the Milanese family that owns farmland in 5,000-acre Co Wicklow estate. Lombardy. Padulli chose finance as a Carolyn Dolgenos, a psychotherapist career, and obtained a doctorate in who is married to financier Count Luca economics. He worked for Chase Man- Rinaldo Contardo Padulli di Vighignolo, hattan Bank and Paribas, before moving became a director of the newly formed to the UK in 1978 and setting up his own Irish company in July. The 59-year-old investment firm in London. He gave an address in Cambridge. co-founded the Camomille Associates Luggala Estate Ltd has yet to file hedge fund, which reportedly once had accounts but its constitution states the assets of £2bn (€2.3bn). company was established to operate as a Padulli’s usual privacy was breached holding company. in court records in 2006 after he accused Padulli, who is thought to be one of his wife of unlawfully taking their three- Britain’s richest men and owns thou- year-old son to New York. The couple set- sands of acres in Norfolk, did not respond tled the dispute and his wife and son to requests for comment. He and returned to the UK. Dolgenos married in London in 1995. Carolyn Dolgenos was arrested in New Luggala was placed on the market in York in 1996 with her two pedigree February 2017 by Barbican International bichons frises, which were off the leash in Corporation, a Guinness family trust. It Central Park. At the time the city authori- declined to comment last week. The cor- ties were fining dog owners who did not poration announced in August that the have their dogs on a lead, but there was Luggala estate had been bought in full. organised flouting of the law. According The purchaser was said to be a private to newspaper reports, Dolgenos had to individual based overseas. be wrestled into submission, taken to a The corporation did not reveal the sale police precinct and handcuffed to a price but the speculation in property bench for 45 minutes. Luggala, once circles is that it was about half the initial After Luggala was placed on the owned by the demand of €28m. market in February 2017, there were calls Guinness family, Padulli, 64, has been described as a for the state to acquire part or all of its is now thought to “ground rent tycoon”, having bought up 5,000 acres for public recreational use. belong to Count freeholds of millions of homes, which The executive council of the Irish Con- Luca Rinaldo resulted in enormous income from gress of Trade Unions wrote to heritage Contardo Padulli ground rent. minister Josepha Madigan saying it was di Vighignolo, He lives in a 16th-century moated “vital” that public access through the left, a Milanese manor house, with a 4,500-acre estate, in estate was maintained. nobleman who the village of Barton Bendish in Norfolk. Madigan replied that her department owns thousands Villagers there have claimed he is active would consider buying it only if the asking of acres in in the community, hosting an annual price fell into a certain range “or in the Norfolk fireworks display and opening his gar- context of a donation or bequest”. She dens each summer. wrote to the vendors saying she hoped In 2017 one neighbour told The Times: access to a popular walking route would “He is a lovely guy as well as being a continue under any new ownership. fantastic businessman. He loves the It has also emerged that Roderic village and getting involved. He is always O’Connor, who lives in a property on the busy and rushing around.” estate, is suing Barbican International Padulli particularly endeared himself Corporation in the High Court. The case to locals by buying the village pub, the was filed on October 4. Both O’Connor Berney Arms, to save it from closure. He and Barbican declined to comment on is known as an important art collector, the case. Thompson comes to aid of waiter suspended for poor selfie etiquette Grant Tucker Arts being asked to pose and say Correspondent cheese too many times. Justin Bieber, 25, put out It is a modern dilemma that a statement in 2016 saying has faced many a starry-eyed that he felt like a “zoo animal” fan when confronted with and would no longer take their favourite celebrity: is it photographs with his appropriate to ask for a selfie? teenybopper fans. For one unfortunate man As a former actress, the last week the desire for a Duchess of Sussex was used celebrity snap proved to selfies when she joined irresistible — and nearly cost the royal family. The Queen, him his job. however, appears to find the A senior waiter at Brown’s, trend saddening. She is the five-star hotel in London’s reported to have told one Mayfair, was so overwhelmed dignitary that she “missed when he saw actress Emma eye contact”. Thompson and a group of Thompson poses on the red carpet — but not at dinner table Prince Charles, too, is said celebrity friends dining last to have told friends that he Saturday that he broke God almighty. That’s to take members and guests, we are gets irritated at the hundreds protocol and asked for a narcissism to its unspeakable unable to make further of camera-phones shoved in photograph with them. extremes. No, get a life comment on this matter.” his face. Thompson, 60, who was everyone.” The rise of the selfie has Brown’s, established in made a dame in 2018, politely Rocco Forte Hotels, the inflicted a sort of plague on 1837, has long been a haunt declined, explaining that she owner of Brown’s, said it had celebrities who have begun to for the rich and famous. did not want to impose on “a strict policy of respecting fight back. While many stars Notable guests have included her guests and the dejected guests’ privacy”. are happy to join the fun Oscar Wilde and Agatha waiter went back to work. Last night, when when on the red carpet, they Christie. Perhaps it is best The next day, however, he approached by The Sunday are reluctant to allow known for being the location was suspended. Times, Thompson was day-to-day intrusion. of the first successful A more diligent student of horrified to learn that the Dame Maggie Smith, 84, telephone call in Europe, Thompson’s career would waiter had been suspended. reportedly refuses made by Alexander Graham have known that she, like She immediately rang photograph requests and Bell in 1876. many stars, has an aversion to Brown’s and asked them to once said in an interview: Its owner, Sir Rocco Forte, selfies at the dinner table. reverse the decision. It is not “What’s awful is it used to be is a Conservative Party donor The Oscar-winner, who known whether her just autographs but now and held a £12,000 (€13,600) starred in Love Actually and intervention had any effect. everyone wants photographs. gathering at the hotel for Nanny McPhee, said in a 2014 Brown’s said: “Caring a Nobody’s private any more.” Boris Johnson when he was interview: “I wouldn’t dream great deal for the privacy and Young stars also seem to be made British prime minister. of taking a selfie with anyone. wellbeing of both team buckling under the burden of @granttucker Dash of turmeric key to beating superbugs Andrew Gregory Germany have developed an curcumin. 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