Dakis Joannou’s Guilty Pleasure

As far as nautical luxury goes, it would be hard to outdo Greek billionaire Dakis Joannou’s “Guilty.” The yacht was built in 2008 by specialist Cantieri Navali Rizzardi, the Italian company that showed the first superyacht longer than 100 feet at the Cannes International Boat and Yacht Show of 2002 (owner Gianfranco Rizzardi refers to his vessels as the “haute couture” of pleasure boats). With an exterior by Jeff Koons, the 115-foot floating hulk is something of a museum-worthy masterpiece. Koons’s design was inspired by the “dazzle” camouflage of WW1 ships—complex geometric patterns that created optical illusions to confuse enemy gunners. The interior, designed by Milan’s Ivana Porfiri, is no less wowing, with works by artists such as Martin Creed and Sarah Morris, whose text painting Guilty inspired the yacht’s name. In between overseeing his Athens-based, non-profit DESTE Foundation, which has supported numerous projects since 1983, and liaising with major art world figures (Larry Gagosian, Marian Goodman and Maurizio Cattelan all attended the christening of "Guilty"), Dakis Joannou sails his prized boat to his villa in Corfu, where he spent ten days with Koons last summer. When Joannou is in Greece, "Guilty" can often be seen moored on the island of Hydra—the site of the new DESTE project space.