Onasis's Island of Skorpios sold to Russian Billionaire!

The Greek shipping magnate's granddaughter, 28-year-old Athina Onassis Roussel, has agreed to sell the island of Skorpios, a jewel in the Ionian Sea, according to Greek media. The identity of the Russian businessman has not been disclosed.

The forested island, off the western coast of Greece, was bought by Aristotle Onassis in 1962 for just 3.5 million drachmas, the equivalent of about £10,000. Six years later it hosted his wedding to Jacqueline Kennedy, the widow of the late President John F Kennedy, who was assassinated in 1963. Upon the death of the Greek shipping tycoon, Skorpios passed to his daughter Christina, who died of a heart attack aged 37 in 1988, and then to Athina.

The Onassis family forged a deep bond with the island – Aristotle is buried there, as is his daughter and his son, Alexander, who died in a plane crash in 1973. Contracts for the purchase of the private island are being drawn up by law firms in Athens and Geneva, according to the Greek press. A prominent broker of private islands around the world said he had not heard of the deal but that it was quite possible that Ms Onassis Roussel had decided to sell the island.

"These Russian oligarchs have billions, so it may be that one of them came along and said 'I will give you 100 million or 200 million euros for it'. Anything is possible," said Farhad Vladi, whose company, Vladi Private Islands, has hundreds of islands on its books. Mr Vladi was hired by Ms Onassis Roussel to carry out an evaluation of the island about eight years ago. "I spent three days on the island. It's beautiful but all its water comes from a mountain bought by Aristotle Onassis on a nearby island. So if you buy the island, you need to buy the mountain too. I would put the price at somewhere north of 100 million euros."

The scene of lavish parties thrown by Aristotle Onassis, Skorpios boasts three residences, a helicopter landing pad and a boat quay. Once described as "the richest girl in the world", the Swiss-educated Ms Onassis Roussel is the only surviving descendant of the shipping magnate. She was born in France, the only child of Christina Onassis and her fourth husband, Thierry Roussel, the heir to a pharmaceutical empire.
In 2005 she married a Brazilian Olympic show jumper, Alvaro de Miranda Neto, and lives in Sao Paulo.
She is said to have little attachment to Greece and to have shown scant interest in spending time on the island, which lies just to the east of the bigger island of Lefkada.


Skorpios is heavily wooded, thanks to the dozens of species of trees that Aristotle Onassis had planted.
He also shipped in sand from a nearby island to create an artificial beach.

Over the years there have been rumours that Giorgio Armani, Bill Gates, the founder of Microsoft, and Madonna were interested in buying the tiny island.

Read full article here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/greece/9984772/Aristotle-Onassis-Greek-island-sold-for-100-million.html