High life
Greek tragedies
Taki
Athens herehere is something very sad about a once great boat coming up for auction with no bidders, and never sadder than when it's the Christina, Aristotle Socrates Onassis's floating palace. She is now named the Argo, and is owned by the Greek government, which can no longer afford her. The last
person to use her was the socialist presi- dent of the Olive Republic, Christos Sartzetakis, appointed head of state by Ali Babandreou, a man who has done for air- line hostesses what cocaine has for Peru.
The Christina was a converted Canadian frigate and in her glory days, the Fifties and Sixties, she was among the largest and most famous yachts afloat. I sailed on her a cou- ple of times, once with Greta Garbo on board — a terrific bore — and once with Maria Callas. Onassis and his boat went from victory to victory: La Callas, Olympic Airways, super-tankers galore and oil refineries. But then, in 1968, he married the widow, Jackie Kennedy, and it all ended in a classic Greek tragedy.
Greeks are superstitious, and those from Asia Minor more so then the rest of us, but no one can say that Ari wasn't warned. His best friend, Costa Gratsos, told him point blank that Jackie was bad luck, and as a result their relationship cooled, for a while. By the end of his life, seven years later, Onassis lamented not having listened to Gratsos. His only son had died in an aero- plane accident, his beloved Olympic line had been nationalised by the Greeks, his ex-wife Tina had also died prematurely, and he was left in the company of Jackie 'a cold-hearted woman' as he described her in his will — who shopped with the kind of tenacity Inspector Javert would envy.
Needless to say, what followed Onassis's death makes Jackie's behaviour resemble that of Mother Teresa. His only daughter and heir, Christina, came under the influ- ence (libel laws prevent me from using words closer to the truth) of Thierry Rous- sel, a man I knew when I was young in Paris. Now it would take a rare talent as a writer to describe him accurately, without going to jail for criminal libel, that is. Although born on sort of the right side of the tracks, Roussel is seedy, a terrific show- off and has the kind of values that people who sell drugs to kids would approve of.
Fifty-seven million dollars later, Roussel is living the life of Riley in expensive resorts around the world. His ace in the hole is Athina, the eight-year-old he fathered with Christina. The latter must have known her days were numbered because she made a will three months before she died in Buenos Aires, aged 37. The will made sure Roussel would not get hold of Athina's assets, now between one and two billion. But he's trying, claiming that his daughter's inheritance should be controlled solely by him.
Mind you, it's not going to be easy, though when I spoke to one of the Onassis lawyers, he told me how already Roussel is behaving as though he were in control. The fix is on, despite the fact that Roussel any- way receives 1.42 million greenbacks per annum for life. Now if that isn't a modern Greek tragedy, I don't know what is.
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