Bidzina Ivanishvili is one of the most famous people in Georgia. A politician, billionaire, philanthropist, he is considered one of the most influential people in the country, it was with his suggestion that, for example, former French citizen Salome Zurabishvili became the president of Georgia. It was his party that dismissed Mikhail Saakashvili.
Ivanishvili is also the richest man in Georgia. In 1990, at the dawn of the emergence of the lending system in the post-Soviet space, he created the Rossiyskiy Kredit Bank, which successfully lent to Russians until 2015. He made his fortune (he ranks 185th in the ranking of the richest people in the world) in the dashing nineties.
In 2006, at Sotheby’s, he bought a Picasso painting he liked for almost $ 100 million.
So where does the richest man in Georgia live?
The futuristic residence of Bidzina Ivanishvili is a unique architectural complex on Mount Tabori in the historical area of Sololaki above the Tbilisi Botanical Garden. The complex consists of a luxurious business center, conference rooms, an indoor tennis court, a dance hall, a huge residential building designed by the famous Japanese architect Shina Takamatsu. The complex is estimated at $ 50 million.
The two upper floors of the palace are built entirely of glass, with a private helipad on the roof. On an area of about 10 thousand square meters, there is a glass tower with a stunning view of the city, inside there is a swimming pool, a private cafe. The gardens around the palace house sculptures by the most expensive contemporary masters. There are rumors of their own zoo with zebras and penguins.
Inside the palace are works of art worth about $ 1 billion.
The high-tech palace has become a real symbol of the new Georgia, reminiscent of the huge gap between poverty and wealth. Below, under Mount Tabori, where the palace is located, a completely different life is in full swing.
Until 2011, Ivanishvili led a secluded life surrounded by things available to people with this level of wealth. But, according to him, he had to go out in public to save Georgia from Saakashvili.
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