If you’re loaded – I mean seriously loaded – and you’ve got money to burn, and you have a very high opinion of yourself what do you purchase? A diamond encrusted Rolex perhaps? Ummm… no. It’s not exclusive enough to really make a statement. A million dollar yacht? Good, certainly expensive enough, but you can’t really show it off in your home when friends come round to dinner. A personal butler/concierge service? Not bad, who wouldn’t want their own PA to do everything for them, but the problem is they are human and they do talk back, plus you have to guarantee employee rights and all that.
No, none of these luxury accessories will do the trick. Today for the billionaire vanity obsessed megalomaniac there is really only one way to truly express your narcissistic tendencies – get your own personal, handcrafted waxwork model. It’s true. I could barely believed it myself until I took a trip to London’s Madame Tussauds to discover that it could actually be done on a private client basis.
Previously an indulgence of mad scientists and dictators like the late eccentric leader of Turkmenistan, Saparmurat ‘Turkmenbashi’ Niyazov who established a personality cult in his authoritarian state with numerous statues, monuments and yes wax models of himself, today anyone can get a personal waxwork made – as long as they can front up about 250,000 USD to 300,000 USD. Ah but it’s a snip for what you get.
Madame Tussauds offers a full personal service. Over a period of four months, a team of twenty people will spend hours painstakingly recreating your likeness in wax. A minimum of 500 precise body measurements are taken over numerous sittings in London, New York, Las Vegas, Hong Kong, Amsterdam or Shanghai in order to capture your perfect reflection. Normally, you would have to spend many days having four to five hour sittings with the sculptors to get everything right, match your hair and eye colour exactly and for you to choose the expression you want. But the Tussauds’ experts are pretty skilled and can work from photos if you can’t reach any of their destinations.
Over the four months, real head hairs are inserted one by one (not from your own hair unless you really want to), and countless layers of paints and tints are applied to build up your exact skin tone. You also get a DVD and photo album of the whole process and a dedicated team will transport and install your wax effigy wherever you wish.
Harrods boss and a man with clear megalomaniac issues, Egyptian Mohammed Al Fayed, has one in his Knightsbridge store. Go to the men’s section on the ground floor and you will find old Mo looking swish and stylish in a grey suit and tie – luckily for him he is also considered worthy enough to have one in Madame Tussauds.
The fact is more and more of the wealthy of today – from City of London execs with fat annual bonuses to the great and good of our land – are purchasing their own wax effigies of themselves. Statues, busts, paintings and photographic portraits are a thing of the past and if you splash the cash you can join the club. As well as the actual model you get to solidify your personal worth to your friends as well as your own ego by joining the exclusive league of actors, popstars, sportstars and world leaders on show at Tussauds’ museums around the globe. Even the rich and famous who appear in the museum turn it down at their peril because the desperate, celebrity-hungry frenzied consumer of today loves to meet their idols up close and if they can’t do it in the flesh, in wax is just as good. It raises your profile no end.
Tussauds Group – which was bought by Dubai International Capital, an investment arm of the government of Dubai, for 1.6 billion USD in 2005 and has recently been purchased for two billion USD by Merlin Entertainment, the owner of Legoland, Sea Life and the London Dungeon – won’t divulge how many people are taking them up on the chance to be immortalised in wax, but confirm that business is good and it’s a trend that is not going away. As a sideline to the museums and tourists attractions and at the price, it’s a profitable interest however many they do.
The sort of people who are commissioning waxworks include the likes of Michael Jackson, General Moaamar Gaddafi and some Saudi princes who don’t wish to be named. There are also a couple of corporate ceos and some South East Asian cult religious leaders as you might expect.
But when it comes down to it, anyone can do it. Hell, I am thinking of getting one done of myself. I am clearly as important as David Beckham and Angelina Jolie and Yasser Arafat. I should definitely be immortalised in wax and stand wherever I want for all to see. Or for that matter in Madame Tussauds itself. Except that apparently that’s the only thing your 300,000 USD won’t buy according to the museum. They’ll do the figure but it won’t ever go on show and the Saturday morning queues around the Baker Street block won’t get to see you. There’s just so much that money can buy.
Contact
Madame Tussauds
London, UK
Tel +4420 7487 0229
studios2@madame-tussauds.com
