Word: beistegui
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Died. Don Carlos de Beistegui, 75, Spanish playboy and jet set superhost; of a heart disease; in Montfort-l'Amaury, France. Heir to ever-producing Mexican silver mines, Beistegui squandered fortunes on incredibly lavish parties -most notably in 1951, when at a cost of $750,000 he restored Venice's 89-room Palazzo Labia, gilded it with an estimated $3,000,000 worth of period trappings, then treated 1,500 friends to a stupendous all-night bash...
...depicted the story of Antony and Cleopatra with almost as much flair as the 20th Century-Fox film. With the extinction of the Labia clan, the palace turned into a squalid dump; illiterate boarders spent unknowing nights under the Tiepolos. In 1948, another Spaniard, the wealthy Don Carlos de Beistegui, now 78, rediscovered the palace, as he said, "with a violence of love and passion that no woman has inspired...
Some 2,000 bargain hunters from the Rothschilds down to some of Beistegui's ex-gondoliers thronged to the auction. Rumor had it that John Paul Getty was there in disguise. A set of four candlesticks went for $25,000; an 18th century Virgin attributed to Nazari went for $900. The total realized by Don Carlos for his Venetian trifle was $1,968,000. As one bargain-seeker put it: "With this auction, another colorful chapter of Venetian history has been closed. It started with a party-and now the party's over...
...Carlos de Beistegui y Iturbi threw the biggest binge Europe has seen in many a year...
...cost of $15,000), Prince and Princess Chavchavadze (whose noble name is pronounced like a sneeze), and practically everyone else who was anybody was there. Shortly before midnight, a flourish of trumpets sounded, and the guests (1,500 in all) were ushered into the great hall, where Host de Beistegui, in scarlet robes and long curling wig, towered over all, his normal height (5 ft. 6 in.) wondrously magnified by platform soles that raised him 16 inches higher...