The Agnelli clan: “kings of Italy. "Uncrowned Kings of Italy Through Thorns to Three Stars"
Many believe there is a curse hanging over this family.
Now Agnelli's name is on everyone's lips again. It is this family that owns the Juventus club, which offered a contract to Cristiano Ronaldo.
"Modern Caesar"
This family is one of the richest in the world, yet they contribute little financially to the club's budget. In addition to the famous Juventus, they own the FIAT automobile concern, and in general Agnelli’s fortune is about 11.2 billion euros. They are called the most influential family in Italy. But at the same time, the family is haunted by misfortunes. There were rumors that this happened because the founder of FIAT, Giovanni Agnelli, worked closely with the fascists: thanks to Benito Mussolini, he managed to organize mass production of cars.
His son Edoardo Agnelli had his head cut off by the propeller of a seaplane he carelessly approached. This sounds so creepy and implausible that some biographical sources prefer to write that Edoardo Agnelli died in a plane crash. Due to Edoardo's death, it was not a family member who had to take over the leadership of FIAT - Giovanni's longtime friend Vittorio Valletta. Under his leadership the company prospered, but in 1966 it returned to Agnelli ownership. Edoardo's son, Gianni Agnelli, became president.
This man, who began to be respectfully called Lawyer (immediately after the war, he took a law course), inherited the qualities of his grandfather - strong character, intelligence, insight, the ability to achieve a compromise beneficial for the company, to which, of course, it is necessary to add incredible charisma. Federico Fellini, who met the Advocate, was delighted: “He has the charm of a movie star. This man is a winner. He has the stature of a king.”
In 1967, Life magazine called Agnelli "a graceful modern Caesar." He owned the largest newspapers, factories and took the best tenders in Italy. Among his friends were John Kennedy, Prince Rainier III of Monaco, and his partners included Libyan Prime Minister Gaddafi, the Shah of Iran, and political leaders of Spain and Latin America. The Agnelli family blocked ministerial appointments it did not like and government decisions that interfered with business. The clan promoted laws beneficial to itself - for example, it banned the import of Japanese cars to Italy. There was a saying: what is good for the Lawyer is good for Italy. Local comedians sadly stated: “If Agnelli decides to walk around with his fly unzipped, then all of Italy will repeat after him.”
Successors
Gianni's hobbies included football, skiing, yachts, auto racing and, of course, women. In 1953, he married Princess Marella Caracciolo de Castaneto, but this did not stop him from having many sensational affairs, including with the Swedish actress Anita Ekberg (known for her role as Sylvia in Federico Fellini’s film “La Dolce Vita”). Gianni Agnelli had everything except one thing - a serious and responsible son to whom he could calmly transfer the business.
His son Eduardo had contempt for business and capitalism in general. Much to Gianni's disappointment, instead of business, Eduardo became interested in Eastern religions and drugs. Soon the guy was arrested for smuggling drugs to Kenya. At the press conference, Agnelli Jr. ranted a lot about God and announced that he was ready to take the reins of the company into his own hands, but his angry father publicly disowned him. In 2000, Eduardo committed suicide. He jumped off a bridge onto a busy highway, leaving behind his illegitimate son.
And three years earlier, another drama occurred. By that time, the patriarch already knew that he needed another successor, and his choice fell on his nephew Giovannino, the son of his younger brother Umberto. Tall, over two meters, a 30-year-old guy, a daredevil and a lover of fast driving, by that time already managed the family factories for the production of the popular Piaggio scooters. Intelligent, approachable, he was perfect for the role prepared by his uncle. But fate decreed otherwise. Giovannino was diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, which in a matter of months brought him to his grave.
On January 24, 2003, Italy saw off the “King of the Apennines” himself on his final journey. The lawyer liked to say jokingly that over the years there were more and more scions of the Agnelli clan, and added after a short pause: “As on earth, so in heaven.” The family placed all its hopes on the new generation - three cousins: Andrea Agnelli, John Jacob and John Elkann. Of the three, Elkann was the most successful businessman. But one day he ended up in critical condition in the Maurisiano hospital after a drug overdose. Moreover, he took a deadly cocktail of heroin, cocaine and alcohol not in his luxurious apartment or in a fashionable nightclub, but in one of the poorest and most dangerous areas of Turin.
Elkann recovered quickly from the incident. However, the image of the family and the FIAT corporation was damaged. Juventus also had problems: a corruption scandal - calciopoli (several Italian clubs were in cahoots with football referees and bought games), a link to Serie B, an almost complete change in the management and playing staff. But Juve overcame all the challenges, and then Andrea Agnelli, the son of Umberto and nephew of Gianni, took over the leadership of the Bianconeri. Under the new president, first place was won after returning to Serie A. Now Agnelli has done a lot to make the transition to the club of such a star as Ronaldo successful. For Andrea, as for his father, uncle and grandfather, Juventus is the love and work of his life.
Prepared by Lina Lisitsyna,
based on materials from Proturin.altervista.org, Point.ru
The history of the Agnelli dynasty - owners of the Fiat automobile concern, the Economist Group media holding and the Juventus football club.
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Gianni Agnelli
The site's observer studied the history of the Italian dynasty of Agnelli entrepreneurs, who founded and still control Fiat, own a large share of Ferrari, the Economist Group, the Juventus football club and a number of other assets, and are also known for political influence in their home country and parallels with the American Kennedy clan .
Giovanni Agnelli. Creation of Fiat
Giovanni is considered the founder of the Agnelli dynasty. He was born in 1866 in Villar Perrosa, the son of Edoardo Agnelli and Aniceta Frisetti. The entrepreneur's father was the mayor of the city. He died when the boy was five years old. Initially, Giovanni's relatives predicted a military career for him.
After graduating from the academy, the future entrepreneur served as a cavalry officer for eight years. He left the service in 1892 without having a distinguished military career. The next point was obtaining a legal education. In 1895, he became the mayor of his hometown, retaining this post until the end of his life.
Giovanni did not calm down at this and began to think about what he could do in the future. Soon his attention was attracted by the automotive industry that had just begun to develop. In 1898, Agnelli met Count Emanuele Bricherasio, who promoted the idea of producing self-propelled carts.
Agnelli agreed to participate in his project. He, unlike Ford or Daimler, was not an engineer, but his entrepreneurial talents compensated for this deficiency.
Giovanni Agnelli
Agnelli got down to business and managed to attract several high-born nobles and major bankers as investors. In 1899, the Società Anonima Fabbrica Italiana Automobili Torino, or Joint Stock Company of the Turin Automobile Factory, was founded.
Subsequently, its name was shortened to simply Fiat. Agnelli invested $400 in the company. Considering the composition of the board of directors, it might seem that Giovanni would be on the sidelines, but Agnelli’s authority and abilities helped him establish himself and a year later become managing director.
One of Agnelli's first successes is considered to be the purchase of the Ceirano brothers' company. At that time she was trying to make cars. And Agnelli liked her first model. Giovanni began promoting the idea of buying it among his partners.
After some deliberation, Fiat management decided to purchase the company of the Cheirano brothers, receiving not only its workshops, but also the company’s designer, Vincenzo Lancia, who became an inspector and tester of the first cars. Vincenzo was 19 years old at that time, and at Ceirano’s company he combined the positions of accountant and mechanic. Giovanni considered Lancia a genius and was impressed by the thoroughness of his reports.
WriteIn the days before the Arab sheikhs and Roman Abramovich, football was a game of teams with equal opportunities off the field. The clubs' income was modest, and the player's salary was not much different from the salary of the average worker. Speaking of Italian football, the end of this innocent time can be considered in 1923, when Edoardo Agnelli took over the reins of Juventus. The club, which had less than thirty years of history and had won only one title, was about to change forever.
With a huge fortune thanks to the FIAT empire, Edoardo was able to forever change the landscape of the game called football throughout the Apennine Peninsula. Agnelli created a strong bond between the club and his family that has remained unbroken by his descendants to this day, and Juventus is one of the few clubs in the world to have owners with such undeniable authority. The Agnelli family, at least since Benito Mussolini consigned the Savoy dynasty to oblivion, is perceived by many in Italy as royal.
Edoardo was only 31 years old when he bought the club, and in just a few short years he managed to change Juventus beyond recognition. The first step was to build a stadium and training ground on the family property near Villar Perosa, and then assemble a team that dominated Italian football by a margin that no rival could overcome. Between 1931 and 1935, Juventus set a record that has never been broken, while also forming the core of a national team that won back-to-back World Cups in 1934 and 1938, as well as Olympic gold in 1936.
The term "Golden Five Year Plan" is forever associated with Edoardo Agnelli and symbolizes the first half of the 1930s, during which Juventus won five Scudettos in a row, starting with the 1930/1931 season. The club also gave impetus to the unification of the nation in the run-up to the outbreak of World War II, during which time Juventus became known as "la fidanzata d'Italia" ( it. - "Italy's girlfriend") thanks to the first time in the history of the country that the club has fans outside its hometown.
Across the Apennine Peninsula, Juventus' successes were celebrated by frenzied fans, which, according to Turin historian Aldo Agosti, "were the result of a number of factors: a unique series of victories accompanied by brilliant performances, a decisive contribution to the triumph of the national team that won the Jules Rimet Trophy in 1934, and wise image creation through the growing sports component in newspapers.” In other words, this was the first example in history of a media storm that would later be repeated in the 1990s.
Paradoxically, another reason for the popularity of Juventus during this period, described by Giovanni De Luna, a professor at the University of Turin, was that the club “then, and even now, represented an alternative to the localism that had become traditional in the provinces, and served as an instrument of protest against the regional capitals.” . The club, named after an idea rather than its location, unexpectedly benefited from the rallying of a nation opposed to the establishment of a republic.
Nevertheless, as fast as the beginning of this era was, its end, marked by a tragic incident, was just as swift. Agnelli died at the age of 43 in a terrible plane crash in Genoa, shortly after winning a historic fifth Scudetto in a row. While landing, the seaplane in which Agnelli was traveling collided with a floating log, and as a result of the impact, Edoardo crashed head first into the rotating propeller of the plane. This case was the first, but far from the last, when the club and the Agnelli family received such a painful blow.
It seemed that Juventus would never be able to recover from the consequences of the tragedy. The feeling that the era of dominance was a thing of the past became even more real after the departure of Renato Cesarini and Giovanni Ferrari from the team. Juventus finished only fifth in the 1935/1936 season under player-coach Virginio Rosetta. Despite winning the first ever Coppa Italia, the club limped into the post-war era in the shadow of its neighboring rivals, the incredible Il Grande Torino ( it. – “The Great Torino”), which took over Serie A in the 1940s.
In 1942, while competition had not yet been stopped due to the raging Second World War, Juventus was forced to move to the city of Alba in order to avoid the constant bombing of Turin, and continued training there until the following spring. In 1947, 12 years after the Golden Five Year Plan, a member of the Agnelli family, Gianni (son of Edoardo), took over as president of the club and transformed it beyond recognition.
If Edoardo was the forerunner of the modern generation of oligarchs and oil tycoons, his son Giovanni, better known to us all as Gianni, should be lauded as the first recognizable symbol of Italian football. Unlike today's players who display the benefits of multi-million dollar earnings with platinum-encrusted jewelry and a perfect bronze tan, the ever-elegant Gianni Agnelli has made himself the living embodiment of the expression la bella figura (translator's note: literally from Italian - “beautiful figure”, with this phrase the Italians describe a philosophy of behavior when a person strives to show his best side both in terms of appearance and in terms of good manners and noble deeds).
With a wristwatch buttoned over his shirt cuff and always impeccably dressed, Agnelli was recognized from the very beginning as an incredibly stylish and highly regarded figure in society. By the time of his death from prostate cancer in 2003 at the age of 81, he had a reputation as a businessman, football enthusiast and playboy, befriending such famous people as David Rockefeller, Henry Kissinger and Anita Ekberg. After spending his youth spending money and seducing women, Agnelli suddenly grew up and took control of the family business empire.
Gianni steered FIAT to success while forging connections with celebrities and politicians as his influence grew. With his visionary vision he modernized the company, but what Agnelli cared about most was the image of Italy as a country and, unlike many other leaders, the welfare of his employees. Struggling with difficult economic times led him to sacrifice his own finances while continuing to follow these principles. Because of this complicity in the destinies of others, Agnelli won admiration and respect that surpassed the indifference or hatred with which most Italians regarded the Bianconeri, becoming perhaps the only Juventino they admired.
Under his leadership, FIAT built schools and housing, providing workers' families with extra income during the holidays and providing them with decent pensions when their working lives came to an end. Constantly demonstrating his business acumen and ability, Agnelli earned the nickname "l'Avocatto" (Italian – lawyer), which stuck with him for the rest of his life. To some extent the nickname was a testament to his legal background, but also to the manner in which he navigated the often turbulent and always bureaucratic world of Italian football.
Effortlessly weaving his way through the intrigue and pettiness of calcio, he created his inimitable style, known as “lo stile Juve” (Italian - “Juve style”). Like George Steinbrenner's New York Yankees, Juventus players were held to a higher standard than other clubs, both on and off the field. Neat hairstyles, the absence of earrings, facial hair and visible tattoos, as well as gentlemanly behavior have become not only desirable, but also a mandatory requirement of the club owner.
Just like the Bronx Bombers (translator's note: “Bronx Bombers” - nickname of the “New York Yankees”), Juventus players were awarded high salaries, which greatly increased public interest in them, but the image and private life of the players were always protected by the club. These rules also applied to mid-level players who earned more at Juventus than they could earn at other teams, and often, when leaving Juventus, players talked about the privileges that they were deprived of when leaving the club.
Despite this, during the post-war period, even these advantages did not help the club resist another Italian football superpower. The most unpleasant thing in all this for Bianconeri fans was that the other superpower was the local Torino, which became the strongest in the Apennines and led by the talent of the legendary Valentino Mazzola. It was then that it began to seem that there was no more suitable candidate than Gianni Agnelli for the role of gentleman who would take the Old Lady by the hand and raise her not only to the top of Italian football, but also to one of the leading places in world football.
Agnelli's presence as president awed players and fans alike, and the press peppered his interviews with quotes. He was a master at giving his players nicknames that often combined both praise and criticism. Alessandro Del Piero received the title “Pinturicchio”, for some time being the successor to another, more skilled “artist”, “Caravaggio”, after whom the club called Roberto Baggio. But in the case of Zbigniew Boniek, the nickname given to him is “Bello di note” (Italian – “night handsome”) The meaning was twofold: the Polish striker was good in European Cup matches, which were usually played in the evening, but was often not very useful in the more grueling domestic games played during the day.
Perhaps the only one who considered himself equal to Agnelli was Michel Platini. Having won three Ballons d'Or, Platini once gave the prize to Gianni Agnelli to hold with the words: “This is something you can’t buy even with all your money!”. When Agnelli asked whether it was true that the Ballon d'Or was made of gold, the Frenchman quipped: “If it really were made of gold, I wouldn’t even give it to you!”. Nevertheless, both of them felt mutual affection, showing signs of respect for each other, which was an infrequent event for both of them in relation to other people.
The respect that Agnelli enjoyed was a reward for the club's incredible history during his time as president. He led the team from one successful era to another with virtually no transition periods. Agnelli's reputation remained untarnished even after the Clean Hands investigation, which "destroyed" many Italian executives and showed that FIAT and its owner were honest. But even a huge fortune and an incredible lifestyle do not guarantee happiness, and the suicide of his depressed son Edoadro in 2000 left indelible scars on Gianni's heart.
Juventus was the only interest they both shared, and Edoardo became a huge fan of the club during the 1980s. During a match with Lecce in April 1986, Edoardo came down from the stands and sat on the coach's bench next to Giovanni Trapattoni. Gianni did not make any concessions, despite the fact that Edoardo was his son, and sent him to Princeton University. During his studies, he traveled to India, and met with Ayatollah Khamenei ( approx. translator: Ayatollah is a religious title among Shiite Muslims) became the reason for Edoardo's decision to convert to Islam. Seeing the changes taking place in his only son, Gianni realized that he was not suitable for the role of heir to the family fortune, and made a choice in favor of both a younger and more distant person from the Agnelli business empire.
In 1990, while Edoardo was in Kenya, he was charged with possessing two hundred grams of heroin. In 2000, his body was found at the bottom of a river under a motorway bridge outside Turin. The bridge had a reputation as a place where people took their own lives, and many close to the Agnelli family believe that Edoardo’s suicide accelerated the illness and death of Gianni, who was diagnosed with prostate cancer in 1997. His condition worsened, and after undergoing treatment in New York, it became obvious that his days were numbered.
Following Gianni's death in 2003, the next member of the Agnelli family took control of the club. Gianni's brother, Umberto, who had earned a reputation in the past as a smart football manager, took over the leadership of the Old Lady. At the age of just one, having lost his father, and at the age of eleven, having lost his mother to a car accident, the younger Agnelli watched from the sidelines as Gianni played the role of FIAT boss and glamorous superstar. The latter's dominance overshadowed his polite and witty but modest younger brother, who received a law degree and the nickname "Il Dottore" ( it. - "doctor"). From 1959 to 1961, Umberto was president of the Italian Football Federation, and then became a senator from the Christian Democratic Party.
Unlike Gianni, a car lover and the face of the family, the younger brother was a bookworm and accountant who helped FIAT acquire the Alfa Romeo and Maserati brands, diversified the company and resurrected a faded giant. He spent less than a year and a half in the presidency, preventing the sale of the Agnelli family's share to General Motors. He died in May 2004 from cancer, as did his older brother, as did his son Giovaninho, who was just 33 when he lost his battle with stomach cancer in 1997, bringing even more pain to everyone associated with the Bianconeri .
“Soviet Sport” continues a series of publications about the most influential people in the world of football.
The Agnelli family is one of the closest families to royal blood in modern Italy. The famous family owns factories, steamship houses... and Juventus is the strongest team in the history of Italian football and one of the most successful on the planet.
Juventus is now enjoying another boom, with five league titles in a row and a virtually guaranteed title this season. However, to understand how the club came to dominate Italian football, we have to go back in time to August 1866.
Football on four wheels
Then, in the tiny town of Villar Perosa, a boy was born into the family of the mayor, who was named Giovanni. His last name was Agnelli.
Little Giovanni's father died at 40, when the boy was only five. He studied at school, then at college in Turin and soon entered military service, which he served until 1893. After that, he returned to his hometown and followed in his father’s footsteps, becoming mayor. He remained in this position until the end of his life.
But the provincial town was not enough for the ambitious young man. The entrepreneurial spirit awakened in him. Somewhere he heard about self-propelled carts, in which he immediately saw great potential. He quickly, albeit with great difficulty, found investors, attracted credit funds, put together a group that in July 1899 founded an automobile factory in Turin.
The first Fiat plant opened in 1900, during which it assembled 24 cars. Giovanni then paid $400 for his share of the shares. In 1906, the plant was already producing 1,149 cars. The time has come to enter the Milan Stock Exchange. After going through many scandals, Giovanni Agnelli finally bought shares of Fiat and became the sole owner of the company.
In 1924, Giovanni Agnelli, who by that time had already taken over almost all automobile production in Italy, began buying up other assets. Huge money literally fell from the sky when he became the exclusive supplier of the Italian army, selling cars, heavy equipment and even weapons to the military. One of these assets was a football club founded 30 years earlier called Juventus. By that time, he had only been the champion of Italy once and there weren’t enough stars in the sky.
sons toy
The legendary industrialist handed over the management of the club to his son Edoardo. In just a few years, Edoardo took the club to a new level. The modest team received its own stadium and training base. 1931 marked the beginning of Juventus' dominance of the Italian championship, which is still called the golden era. The club won five titles in a row. Now this record has been repeated and may even be surpassed.
Juve reigned in Italy, and its players dominated the national team. It was during this period that the national team flourished - two world titles in 1934 and 1938 and victory at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin. Thanks to this, the team has fans not only in its hometown, Turin, but throughout Italy. No other club had had this before Juventus. Mostly they supported the team in their city. The clubs were mostly called that way - Milan in Milan, Roma in Rome, Napoli in Naples. Even in Turin there was such a city team - Torino.
The golden era ended in tragedy - Edoardo Agnelli crashed on his own seaplane, crashing into a log floating on the surface of the water at the time of landing. From the impact, the football official's head jerked and fell under the propeller blades - a terrible death.
Black stripe on the body of zebras
Juventus has faded into the background in the Italian championship. Another team from Turin moved forward. However, the glorious history of Torino also ended suddenly and tragically. But that's a completely different story.
After the Second World War, not the best times came for Fiat either. It changed hands several times - they constantly tried to take it away from the Agnelli family under the pretext of cooperation with the bloody regime of Benito Mussolini. But each time the empire returned to its owner - no one else could manage it effectively. Even Mussolini, with whom Giovanni Agnelli behaved more than coldly, did not dare to take away the factories from their owner, because he understood the importance of production for the country. By that time, Fiat had already become the largest enterprise in the state.
Giovanni died in December 1945. He left behind a grandson named after him - Giovanni. But he is better known by the shortened version of his name - Gianni. By that time, the Fiat did not belong to the Agnelli family, and Gianni took advantage of the family’s wealth - he attended all the high-profile social events, wooed the most beautiful girls in Europe, led an idle lifestyle, trying to have fun every minute. He had no interest in business.
It appeared only in the 60s, when the Fiat concern was returned to its rightful owners. By that time, Gianni was already fully involved in the football club, of which he became head in 1947. But until Fiat returned in 1935, the club managed to win Serie A only five times.
From Giovanni to Giovanni
Thus began a new wonderful era for the legendary team. With the advent of money, the best football players on the planet began to come to the club. Juventus began to win not only in Italy, but also in European football arenas, and became recognizable in the Old World. Gianni became an icon among fans and was known as one of the most stylish people in Europe. He was also one of the richest businessmen on the planet.
It was Gianni who brought such players to the team as Dino Zoff, Michel Platini, Roberto Baggio and many others. Under his leadership, the Old Lady won 14 more league titles, bringing their total to 26. Juventus left their closest rivals behind and became the only Italian club that could boast two gold stars above its emblem - one for every ten championship titles.
Inter and Milan still have one star each, while Juve already has three. But the third is not Gianni’s merit. The legendary president died in January 2003 at the age of 82 from cancer. A couple of years earlier, his son Edoardo, to whom he initially wanted to inherit the empire, died. Later, however, Gianni was disappointed in his son - he first went on a trip to India, then converted to Islam, and later he was caught in a foreign country with 200 grams of heroin. It all ended tragically - Edoardo threw himself off a 70-meter bridge in Turin.
After Gianni's death, his brother Umberto had to take over the reins of the club. He was a brilliant strategist and business manager. Largely thanks to him, the Agnelli family retained the shares of Fiat, and did not sell them to the American company General Motors. Later, the Italians bought another American giant, Chrysler. Under Humberto, Juve won another title. Umberto managed to last only a year and a half on the team - death from cancer prevented him.
Through thorns to three stars
For several years there was simply no one to take care of Juventus. It was during this timelessness that the loudest scandal in the history of the team occurred, when the most titled club in Italy was accused of bribing judges, was stripped of two championship titles and sent to the second division - Serie B.
Only in 2010, the fallen black and white banner was picked up by Andrea Agnelli, the son of Umberto. He began to build a new financial model for the team, which immediately began to bear fruit. In 2011, the new stadium of the Turin club was opened. The team began to generate huge profits, which began to be converted into expensive purchases. They, despite everything, also began to generate income. If Manchester United is the team that bought the most expensive football player on the planet, the Frenchman Paul Pogba, then Juventus is the club that managed to sell the most expensive player in the world. It is not yet known which of these is better.
Under Andrea Agnelli, who just turned 41, Juventus have already won five league titles in a row, reaching the Champions League final. Now the “Old Lady” is rushing at full speed towards its sixth victory in a row. If so, Andrea will soon surpass the achievement of her legendary grandfather Edoardo. But how many glorious victories are still ahead...
Almost an aristocrat by birth, heiress to millions, mother of eight children (here she beat out the late Duchess of Alba), a talented artist, and with the appearance of a Renaissance lady.
Who is she?
Margherita Agnelli-Palen was born on October 26, 1955 in Switzerland into the Italian family of Giovanni Agnelli, an Italian billionaire and executive director of the FIAT automobile concern, and the Neapolitan princess Marella Caracciollo di Castagneto.
But her father’s family also had aristocratic roots; her paternal grandmother was born Princess Victoria Borbone del Monte. Margherita's mother was engaged in drawing and clothing design, also acting as a philanthropist. The girl received a good education in Switzerland and Great Britain. It should be noted that Margherita always had a freedom-loving and strong character, which often resulted in conflicts with her parents. In addition, by vocation she is a poet and artist.
Giovanni Agnelli with his wife Marella
Eduardo Agnelli, Margherita's brother and an ardent fighter for equality
In 1975, she met her future husband Alan Elkann, a French-Italian writer of Jewish origin. Alan also came from a wealthy family, but his parents were not happy with their relationship. However, at the end of 1975 they had a hasty wedding because the bride was pregnant. The couple had three children: John, married to Lavinia Borromeo, half-sister of Beatrice Borromeo, Lapo (an eligible bachelor, but with a reputation as a former drug addict, who recently admitted to being sexually assaulted at school) and Geneva. At the request of Margherita's parents, the children were raised in the Catholic faith.
Writer Alan Elkann. Margherita's first husband
Margherita in her youth with her father
Grandfather and grandmother with children and grandchildren
Unfortunately, the relationship that began so passionately began to crack and the couple divorced. In 1981, Marguerite married for the second time a French aristocrat of Russian origin, Count Serge Palen, with whom Marguerite had five more children: a son and four daughters (two daughters were twins). Margherita's father did not approve of his daughter's frequent births. However, Margherita decided to devote herself entirely to family happiness in the vicinity of a picturesque French village.
John Elkann, Margherita's eldest son
John with his wife, wealthy heiress Lavinia Borromeo, half-sister of Beatrice Borromeo
Lapo Elkann, who knows how to shock
Geneva Elkann, married to Gaetanni
The strong family of Marguerite Palen and Count Serge Palen, her second husband
In 1992, Margherita suffered a fire at a friend's country house in Vladimir, Russia. She suffered burns and her friend's two children died. She could not come to her senses for a long time, and treatment came through art - Margherita painted pictures in her free time.
Her only brother, Eduardo, died in mysterious circumstances on November 15, 2000. The cause of his death was later given as suicide. Be that as it may, since Eduardo never married and had no legitimate children, the inheritance went to Margherita.
Eduardo had contempt for business and capitalism in general. Much to Giovanni's disappointment, instead of business, Eduardo became interested in Eastern religions and drugs. After studying religion at Princeton University, he met Ayatollah Khomeini in Iran and was rumored to have converted to Islam. He was soon arrested for smuggling drugs into Kenya. At the press conference, Agnelli Jr. ranted a lot about God and announced that he was ready to take the reins of the company into his own hands, but his angry father publicly disowned him. In 2000, Eduardo committed suicide. He jumped off a bridge onto a busy highway, leaving behind his illegitimate son.
Gianni Agnelli died in 2003 and wanted his eldest grandson John Elkann to take his place. But not everything turned out so simple.
Another potential heir, Giovanni Alberto, nephew of Giovanni Agnelli, died in 1997, at the age of 33, from cancer.
After Giovanni and Alberto died, the family placed all its hopes on the new generation - three cousins: Andrea Agnelli, John Jacob and John Elkann. It seemed that the situation, which had recently deteriorated greatly, began to improve, but fate dealt the Agnelli clan a new blow.
In 2004, when it seemed that FIAT would not survive, she gave up all her shares to her mother for an unknown (but without much risk of error one can assume a very large) amount.
Then a big surprise happened. Just yesterday, it seemed that the terminally ill FIAT suddenly not only recovered, but also began to rapidly catch up with competitors who had gone ahead. Moreover, he did it so quickly and convincingly that by the beginning of 2007, the value of his shares increased 5 times!
At the beginning of 2007, Margherita Agnelli de Palen filed a lawsuit against three executors of Giovanni Agnelli's estate in the Turin City Court. She demands that they stop “feeding” her with vague numbers and clearly and clearly say how much her father left, that is, provide a full financial report on Giovanni Agnelli’s condition.
So far everything is logical, although not very beautiful. Surely Margherita decided that she was cheap and wanted to earn extra money.
True, her lawyers say, and she herself confirmed in an interview with the German magazine Focus that she does not need the money. She is driven solely by the desire to establish the truth and make the finances of the empire both transparent and honest.
Of course, no one believed Margherita, but a claim is a claim, and it needs to be sorted out. The first hearing of the case is scheduled for January 9, 2008.
In November, after Margherita’s interview, her mother, the 80-year-old widow Giovanni, unexpectedly broke her silence. Unexpectedly, because until now Marella was considered in the Apennines the standard of refined style, elegance and beautiful life.
Marella wrote an open letter to the same Focus, in which she accused her daughter of violating the will of her late father and of wanting to earn money, although
received more than generous compensation for the shares.
Margherita is right about one thing: the exact size of Giovanni Agnelli’s fortune is indeed unknown. Most analysts, however, agree that it is valued at about $8 billion. About 60% is in FIAT, and the rest is invested in enterprises and companies in a variety of fields, from football (Juventus) to banks, real estate and Media (La Stampa). The Agnelli family is large. It has about 250 people, but only 90 of them own FIAT shares.
Giovanni Agnelli's favorite grandson was John, the son of his daughter Margherita and the writer Elkann. Giovanni loved John, probably because he was like him. As a result, it so happened that John Elkann is the current chairman of the board of the FIAT group.
About the artist's style: Margherita Agnelli-Palen can be classified as an individualist artist. Palen's pictorial system, often based on religious subjects, is fundamentally figurative and always metaphorical. The combination of a pictorial symbol and a possible literary interpretation of the plot is a characteristic feature of the artist’s painting. In the space of one of the artist’s most successful paintings, “History, Myth, Legend, Fairy Tale,” the poetic principle that spiritualizes her painting is collected in a single semantic key. By the way, Margherita came to Moscow with exhibitions more than once.