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Looking
up on 23rd and Park Avenue South. 4:05 PM. Photo: JH.
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The
mysterious murder of the mysterious Edouard Stern. Last
Tuesday night in Geneva, the fifty-year-old international investment
banker Edouard Stern was shot twice in the head
and once in the back in his fifth-floor penthouse apartment. Although
the murderer remains at large amazingly, the ground
floor of Mr. Stern’s building housed a police station, and
the entrances to the building were equipped with security cameras.
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Edouard
Stern (Sipa)
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Stern's body
was discovered Wednesday when he didn’t show up
for meetings and business associates contacted his housekeeper
to gain access to his apartment. When they found the body, he was
wearing a latex rubber body suit. This costume immediately led
the European newspapers to assume it may have been a homicide related
to sadomasochistic activities (he was not a surfer).
It was also reported that the authorities believe the
banker might have been a victim of an assassinat – a
premeditated killing. Mr. Stern was known to have, according to
one source,
a long list of powerful enemies in his personal and professional
life, “all capable of hiring the best assassins," There
had been rumors in Geneva that he’d recently lost a lot of
money through bad investments in eastern Europe and Russia, and
that the losses infuriated him although he also felt “to
be under threat.”
Investigators
are not ruling out the possibility that the assailant or assailants
also put him in the rubber suit
after he’d been shot to distract the intent of the crime.
Some news reports alluded to a Russian mafia hit.
The handsome Mr. Stern was the scion of an old French banking family
whose business, Banque Stern, dates back to the first quarter of
the 19th century. Once regarded as an enfant terrible, with an
indulgent mother, he was a child with a difficult, even harsh disposition
at times. As the son of a father of high German Jewish background,
comparable to the Rothschilds, and a Catholic mother, the boy grew
up in a life of privilege in a Paris mansion and a European education.
As a youth he was regarded as an undisciplined pupil and a rebellious
teenager. In time, as an adult he became a black belt in karate,
a collector of guns (he loved to shoot) and an expert poker player
(he also ran in the New York marathon).
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The
building where Stern's body was discovered
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In 1977, still only 22, he left the Ecole
Superieure de Science Economiques et Commerciales in Paris and joined the family bank,
then headed by his father Antoine, and in very bad shape financially.
Immediately he demonstrated the qualities and characteristics that
gave him his reputation for being an abrasive and uncompromising
deal-maker. He quarreled often with his father and soon, with the
help of his two uncles, pushed the man out of the family business.
Although the Oedipal act was considered selfish and aggressive,
it was also true that the father’s management of the bank
had been disastrous. Antoine Stern and his son never spoke again
for fifteen years and were only reconciled – although according
to some reports, just barely – until the father was on his
deathbed.
The son later admitted he was “brutal,” and “regretted
it” because it gave him a bad reputation. He got rid of a
lot of people, he said “because they were dishonest,” and
he also got rid of those who had failed to notice the “dishonesty.” It
is safe to say he intimidated people wherever he went in business.
Crafty and ambitious, his goal was to build the greatness of the
family name in the American and British financial markets. And,
indeed, he succeeded. Under his new management, he revived the
family bank and sold it to Lebanese businessmen for a fortune
in the early 1980s, while keeping the family name above the door
and continuing to run it. After that he built another bank, also
called Stern, which he sold to a Swiss bank in the late 80s at
a handsome profit, while still remaining chairman until 1998. One
of his British business associates Lindsay Owen-Jones said, “there
is no other example in our generation of one who made as much money
in so little time.”
In 1983 Stern married Beatrice David-Weill, the
eldest daughter of Michel David-Weill, the controlling
partner of Lazard Freres, the powerful and influential private
investment bank with offices
in Paris, London and New York. Lazard is well-known to New Yorkers
because of its American partners, past and present, including Felix
Rohatyn, Steve Rattner, Vernon Jordan and Bruce
Wasserstein, as
well as a French partner, Jean-Marie Messier.
An earlier partner, who presided in New York, Andre Meyer (1903 – 1979),
was known for years as one of the most politically influential
financial
men in the world. Mr. Meyer was, among other things, credited with
having guided the financial fortunes of Jacqueline Kennedy
Onassis after the death of the president.
Edouard Stern's association with Lazard was considered problematic
from the time he joined the firm in 1992. His
financial genius was hindered by his personality. Lazard was — and
evidently continues to be — the near fiefdom of his father-in-law,
one of the richest men in France, and easily autocratic despite
his outwardly gentle and charming personality.
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Michel
David-Weill
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David-Weill
is a direct descendent of the founders of the one-hundred and fifty-year-old
bank which now has annual earnings in the
hundreds
of millions as well as valuable stakes in such major international
companies such as Danone and Pearson. He often refers to his business
as “la maison” (The House), and he has pretty much
run it since the demise of M. Meyer more than a quarter century
ago. M. David-Weill, who has long had a social presence in New
York as well as Paris, is an intimate power broker of the corporate
high and mighty in both Europe and the United States for decades.
The arrival of the son-in-law on the
scene challenged his
father-in-law’s
authority. Stern also became a significant shareholder
in the bank’s holding companies, and a power struggle between
the two men ensued.
Stern also did not endear
himself to some of his associates. His aggressive manner
led to
his
being
ejected
from two of the bank’s senior committees.
Others also found Stern impossible to deal with. Furthermore whatever
went wrong in the new association between father-in-law and son-in-law,
(accounts differ – some said that David-Weill gave his son-in-law
too little responsibility and he became bored) the “grooming” as
future head of the business did not take. M. David-Weill was later
quoted as saying, “I treated him like a son and he tried
to treat me as he treated his father.”
In 1997, after bitter feuding, Stern left Lazard with a pay-off
acquired after a threat of legal action, and started his own European
investment fund (Lazard had a substantial financial stake in it)
called Investments Real Returns SA. IRR was half-owned by Eurazeo,
an investment firm that has a 16-percent stake in Lazard and is
chaired by M. David-Weill.
David-Weill has long had a reputation for, in the words of one
former partner, for not having “developed the loyalty of
people in the firm." It should also be noted that the firm slipped
in ranking of global merger-and-acquisition deals from 6th place
in 1997 to 11th place last year.
Stern then moved to Switzerland for tax reasons, according
to one Swiss media report – he was considered an expert in
off-shore tax avoidance – and was said to have a network
of more submerged investments in places such as Luxembourg and
the Caymans.
He set up shop in Geneva, where he served on several boards and
ran investment firm IRR Capital, in part to manage the Stern family
fortune, His business interests extended across the Atlantic and
to eastern Europe or Russia as well as Israel.
Now separated from his wife, who lives in New York, he
would fly here on his private jet to visit his children. His life
in Geneva,
aside from his business associations, was said to be quiet and
somewhat isolated, seeing only three or four friends. There was,
however, other private social activity. The press reported that
he “assiduously attended ‘certain establishments’” where
its nightlife was “very agitated, very discreet downtown,” and
most definitely not “gotha finance genevoise.”
It was, another reported, “a very complicated private life” frequenting “adult
clubs.” Edouard Stern had what turned into a lifelong reputation
for “entering
everywhere by effraction,” which is to say, by force, by
breaking in. Ironically his life ended violently, by another version
of force, by someone else’s “effraction,” and
somehow with his acquiescence.
"He was a charming man, very generous towards me and my husband," his
housekeeper recalled. "I did his washing and his cleaning.
I knew which yogurts he liked best, but of his private life I
know nothing. He never spoke to me about that." |
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At
the home of Tom Schumacher and Matthew
White.
Three at left: Francesca Stanfill, Hutton
and Ruth Wilkinson. Three at back: Charlotte Jackson
(in black lace), John and Debbie Brincko
(in bright blue). Center grouping: Andrea Fiuczynski,
William Stafford, Matthew White, Thomas Schumacher, Sassy Johnson,
DPC, Amanda Stonnington. Men at back right: Nick Stonnington
and Richard Nye. Front: Terry and Dennis Stanfill.
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Friday
night Save Venice held its annual costume ball at Cipriani 42nd
Street with several hundred attending the black tie affair. Before
the Ball, Disney’s theatrical producer Tom Schumacher and
his partner, interior designer Matthew White had a small cocktail
party for the Ball’s honoree, Terry Stanfill who came in
from her home in Los Angeles with her husband Dennis
Stanfill.
Schumacher
and White have a rather grand apartment in one of the fine old Stanford
White designed mansions on lower Park Avenue. JH and the
Digital
was there to record the event. |
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Matthew
White and Thomas Schumacher
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Amanda
Stonnington and Charlotte Jackson
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Dennis
and Terry Stanfill
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Nick
Stonnington and Andrea Fiuczynski
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Francesca
Stanfill and Richard Nye
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Matthew
White and
pooch
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Matthew
White, Sassy
Johnson, and Terry
Stanfill
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Hutton
Wilkinson and Terry
Stanfill
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Two
views of the living room |
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Afterwards
we went down to Chanterelle, the beautiful restaurant
on the corner of Harrison and Greenwich Streets, for dinner. I’d
never been before but have always recalled reading a review of
the place
in the New York Times several years ago that was so glowing
and rapturous I wasn’t sure I had the palette sophisticated
enough to appreciate the art of the chef and co-founder David
Waltuck.
The restaurant décor, despite its downtown location, is as sublimely chic
as anything one might find uptown. The sweeping floral arrangements are created
daily by the chef’s wife and co-founder, Karen Waltuck, set against walls
that looks to be a pale pale peach, a shade known as “chanterelle” (hence
the name, which came after the walls were painted, suggested by a friend). The
vestibule when one enters is like a small sitting room in an art collector’s
apartment, containing an armoire (for the coats) and desk, two small sofas, chairs
and covers of previous menus – all artworks by contemporary American artists.
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David
Waltuck — a view of the "artist's" hand
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Their first
menu was done by the great TriBeCa-based sculptor Marisol. Since
then they’ve featured works by a wide range of artists, photographers,
writers, poets and even musicians including Roy Lichtenstein, Cy Twombly,
Jennifer Bartlett, Ellsworth Kelly, Donald Evans, John Cage, Virgil Thompson,
Ross Bleckner,
Donald Baechler, James Brown, Vija Clemins, Bill Cosby and Edward
Henderson, Merce Cunningham, Keith Haring, Francesco Clemente, Eric Fischl,
John Dugdale,
April Gornik, Maurice Grossier, Robert Indiana, Jenny Holzer, Louise Nevelson,
Allen Ginsburg, Gregory Hull, Michael Hurson, Jasper Johns, Cletus Johnson, Tom
Levine, Bill Katz, Glenn Ligon, Robert Luongo, Andrew Lord, Robert Mapplethorpe,
Marcel Marceau, Malcolm Morley, Elizabeth Murray, Philippe Petit, Richard Prince,
Daniel Oats, Francois Morellete, Susan Rothenberg, David Seidner, Jack Shear,
Cindy Sherman, Lorna Simpson, Kiki Smith, Mike and Doug Sturm, Terry Winters,
and our menu Friday night which was created by Robert Rauschenberg. It’s
really quite an amazing array (and now a collection), and it somehow sets the
tone for the evening: you’re in a very special place where you will have
a very special experience. And pleasure.
The atmosphere is neither sedate nor festive, but serene. The clientele,
which to these eyes covered the spectrum from the twenties upward,
is dressed for the
occasion according to their own individual taste – some in suits and dressy
dresses, others very relaxed and casual in blazers or even short-sleeved shirts. |
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David
Waltuck
in the kitchen
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Before
we ordered (but not before the chef had sent us a tasting of
some baby shrimp), we had the opportunity to visit David Waltuck
in his kitchen where he told us a little bit about his background.
He’s a New York boy who attended the Culinary Institute
in Hyde Park in his early twenties. He never finished but went
to work here in Manhattan on the Upper East Side in a popular
restaurant of the day called La Petite Ferme. After a brief time,
he and his wife decided
to open a place of their own – this was twenty-five years ago – in
the just then burgeoning TriBeCa.
Younger
New Yorkers may not know that up until about that
time, there was no such name as TriBeCa, just as up until the
late 1960s,
there was no such name
as SoHo. All of that grew out of the artists' migration in those years
to that former industrial metropolitan area with its wonderful spaces (lofts)
full of light. So the Waltucks’ choice was ground-breaking – opening
what was to be an “upscale” business in a brand-new part of town.
The first Chanterelle had ten tables (or maybe less), and almost from the first,
they had an eager and enthusiastic clientele. David Waltuck changes his menu
every ten days or so and there are no permanent dishes (except for the Grilled
Seafood Sausage, which three of us chose for the appetizer). I had a bite
of
that and it was fantastic. I had the Terrine of Smoked Salmon and Black Caviar.
Also excellent. Then came a Quintette of Blue Island Oyster Preparations.
I am not an oyster lover although there were two at the table to pick up any
slack
so that there were only empty shells left. Our choices for the main courses were
Olive Oil Poached White Tuna with Saffron Orzo and Tomato Caper Vinaigrette,
Fricasse
of
Lobster
with
Lime,
Curry
and Muscat, Sautéed Tasmanian Sea Trout with Onion Compote, and Fig Balsamic
Reduction, and Fig Balsamic
Reduction and Brined Niman Ranch Organic Pork wrapped in Prosciutto
with White
Beans and Tarragon (my choice). |
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Chanterelle's “assortment
of cheese"
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This
was followed by the “assortment of cheese,” about
a dozen and a half of choices, each carefully described by the
waiter (we all chose
about six to try), followed by a variety of desserts, all too much at this
point, and all eaten in entirety. With everything washed down by a “tasting
of Old World Wines” and “a tasting of New World Wines.”
It should be said that the company was excellent, four people full of things
to say, as well as enthusiastic gourmands for the evening. The service
is seamlessly thorough, so much so that one is only conscious of having
what one needs at all times without ever having to ask for anything. We
arrived a little after eight-thirty, and three hours later, possibly slightly
too sated from the grandeur of the menu (and wanting to try everything),
we were putting on our coats to go back out into the cold New York night.
There is a menu of several choices of appetizers, main courses and desserts
for $95, including coffee, tea, etc, plus the assortment of cheeses for
$19., and then there is the prix fixe of a choice of two appetizers, two
main courses, the cheese, a tasting of chocolate desserts and petits fours
for $115. The wine tastings are $85 each, Old World and/or New. Everything
as sublime as the chanterelle.
To learn more, you can visit their website: www.chanterellenyc.com. |
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L.
to r.: The Robert Rauschenberg-designed menu cover;
The menu items handwritten by Karen Waltuck. |
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The
main dining room
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One
of 3 flower arrangements in the main dining room
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Chanterelle
celebrates its 25th Anniversary
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The
wall of menu covers designed by the likes of Robert Indiana,
Eric Fischl, Roy Lichtenstein, Ellsworth Kelly, Jennifer
Bartlett, Keith Harring, Robert Mapplethorpe and many
more
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