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Merrill Lynch CEO John Thain spent $1.22 million in company dollars to redecorate his office in early 2008. The Daily Beast has a list of all the items on which he spent all that money. Shortly after, it became clear even outside the company that Merrill Lynch was headed for financial disaster. The company was taken over by Bank of America, who announced that Thain resigned his position last Thursday. But was $1.22 million really that extravagant? He could have spent much more on office furniture.
Table
Thain spent $16,000 for a custom coffee table and and another $25,000 for a mahogany pedestal table. Mere chicken feed, of course, since the most expensive table ever sold was the Tufft pier table, which sold for $4.6 million in 1990. It may have been a quirk, since Christie’s expected it to sell for $3 million less. You can get a reproduction of this table for a mere $3,595.00 (free shipping!), which doesn’t come close to what Thain spent for his tables.
Sofa
The cost of Thain’s new sofa was only $15,000. He could have spent more, but he might have had to sacrifice comfort. This stainless steel sofa designed by Ron Arad was expected to fetch $300,000 at auction. The final sale price was $206,500. The matching chair went for $68,500.
Desk
Another item on the list was $18,000 for a George IV desk. I found a picture of a George IV mahogany desk, but no price attached (if you have to ask, you can’t afford it). $18,000 may be a fair price, but who knows? It doesn’t seem like anything special -in fact, it looks a lot like my computer desk, which I snagged from a relative’s storage shed. For $18,000, Thain should have had a custom-built Lego desk. Or he could’ve spent $200,000 on a Power Desk from Parnian Furniture. These are hand-built over five months to exact size and shape specifications for each customer.
Chandelier
Thain spent $13,000 for a chandelier for his private dining room. Although the question of how one gets a private dining room included with an office burns within me, this is not a lot to pay for a good chandelier. This one went for $450,000. On eBay. In 2006. It contains gold, crystal, and rubies, but the price was really justified by the floor lamp and sconces that came with the deal.
Rugs
Thain spent a total of $131,000 for area rugs. That sounds like a lot of money, but it doesn’t hold a candle to the 5′x7′ Persian silk rug that was sold at auction last year for $4,450,500. That’s over $700 per square inch! You’d expect to pay a lot for a hand-woven silk rug estimated to be 400-500 years old, especially one from the estate of Doris Duke, but that’s a lot of dough to wipe your feet on!
Fabric for a Roman Shade
Another item on Thain’s list of expenditures was $11,000 for fabric for a Roman Shade. I wasn’t sure what a Roman Shade is, so I looked up pictures and instructions for making one. You would have to smile thinking of the CEO of Merrill Lynch making his own shades using WikiHow. The instructions say you only need enough fabric to cover the window, doubled if you use the same fabric for the lining. What would that be, three or four yards, max? What kind of fabric could possibly cost that much? The Belgian textile company Scabal was already known for their super-expensive vicuna wool they call Summit, which costs £1500 per meter, which is about $3,000 a meter, or slightly less for a yard. This past year they outdid themselves by introducing Gold Treasure, a Merino wool fabric with real gold thread woven in, at £4,000 per meter, which is very expensive in American dollars per yard. The normal use for this fabric is to make men’s suits. And not very many of them.
Wall Sconces
Thain paid $2,700 for six wall sconces. That’s $450 each, although some of that would have been sales tax. He could have spent a little more and bought Leaf Silhouette Wall Sconces by Fluorescent Hubbardton Forge for $488.70 each, which is marked down from $678.75 each. Bargain!
Mirror
OK, $5,000 for a mirror? For a mere grand more, Thain could’ve bought a McLeod Mirror powered by a Mac Mini and a webcam. This mirror takes your image and processes into art.
Chair
Of course, you must have lots of chairs for the folks who will be impressed by your newly redecorated office. Six dining room chairs cost $37,000, and two more chairs ran an additional $87,000. I can understand how it would cost more than usual to buy dining room chairs without the table -a store usually doesn’t want to split up a set. Chairs are more expensive in the United Arab Emirates. This office chair was designed by Hadi Teherani and features gold plating. It’s yours for €50,000 or $65,500. Perfect for supporting your tush while you count the money, whether it’s from oil wells or investors.
Sooner or later, we will see pictures of the CEO’s office at Merrill Lynch and decide if he spend the company’s money wisely. Or you can read between the lines.
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Comments (15)
Comment
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I think Thain and his ilk have proven they deserve the fates of Louis XVI and Marie Antionette.
posted by BassMan on 1-26-2009 at 8:07 am
He and those like him deserves to go to real jail (not the country club jail that Martha Steward went to) for 15 to 20 years.
posted by Lizzy on 1-26-2009 at 9:11 am
My APARTMENT cost 109,000 Euros… Thats about 125,000 dollars. Thats WITH a garage and security system. My SMART cost 10,000 euros… Chair.. Car… Chair…… Car…….. I dont get it.
posted by Kate on 1-26-2009 at 10:34 am
I work at a design firm. Two years ago, when times were good, our HR people put on an “ergonomics week,” where specialists went cubicle to cubicle and told us what we were doing “wrong” at our desks.
Fast forward to last week. We’ve lost both our major accounts, have laid off half the staff, and our office is literally falling apart. My chair is completely broken, and I went to the same HR person who put on that ergonomics week for a new one. She said new chairs were not in the budget. I brought in a chair from home on Friday and was told that was “against policy.”
Anyone hiring?
posted by Kelly on 1-26-2009 at 10:59 am
Great post. Here are some of the top ten prices for rugs in 2008
rugrag.com/post/Top-10-Persian-Rugs-and-Oriental-Carpets-Prices-of-2008.aspx
Thains rug better have been pretty sweet. $87000 for an “area rug” is a lot. Area rug usually refers to 6×9 or smaller… Hopefully the media just mixed this one up a bit
posted by DD on 1-26-2009 at 12:15 pm
I just read on MSN that Thain will be reimbursing BoA for redecorating his office, calling the cost “a mistake in light of the world we live in today.”
reCaptcha: warning Chief
posted by tpal on 1-26-2009 at 12:50 pm
Just goes to show that excesses are a mindset which ignore opinions.
But I do want to know what chair that is behind the executive desk!
posted by Dan on 1-26-2009 at 1:06 pm
Now here’s a man who spent more on his office decor than most people earn in their lifetime & we’re bailing him out. What’s right with this picture? I’d say it drives me nuts, but with everything else going on it ain’t much of a drive, just a short walk. Too bad the “F” word is so overused that it’s lost all meaning. However, if you’re from the old school, when the “F” word really stood for something, this is when it’s appropriate as a verb with a pronoun. And it would explain why we’re sending him to prison for a long time. Like the time it takes the avg. person to earn $1.2 mil.!
posted by DUKE on 1-26-2009 at 1:58 pm
Mr. Obama will be using the same decorator for the White House as Mr. Thain used. I’m sure he will also be spending over $1MM. This in the face of trillion dollar deficits.
I find it odd that people complain about businesses over-spending but say little about their own tax dollars being wasted.
posted by Walter on 1-26-2009 at 2:14 pm
walter,
the obama’s redecorating budget is $100k. a far cry from $1.22MM.
posted by war tiger on 1-26-2009 at 3:26 pm
This is just sad. Think of all the scholarship funds, homeless shelters, animal shelters, and orphaned children that money could have helped! I just don’t understand this at all. If I had money, all I would have to do was turn on the television or read a newspaper to know that it is not the norm to buy such expensive things when there are people out there without a dollar. No, I’m not talking about welfare, I’m talking about helping those truly in need who may not be able to help themselves: adopt a child, give towards a scholarship to help some young intelligent poor student, give towards an animal shelter where they can almost no longer feed and care for the animals. Something! I swear, if I ever get that much money on my hands, I’d rather give $75,000 to someone in need rather than buy a chair.
Oh, and Walter, what does Obama have to do with this? His daughters wore JCrew to the inauguration and before the Secret Service limo the Obamas shared a cheap economy car. They don’t scream extravagance to me….
posted by Kim W on 1-26-2009 at 4:08 pm
i could have made him the 6 wall scones for 100$-200$ depending on his metal choice…. such is the life of a starving artist
posted by kat on 1-26-2009 at 5:54 pm
$18000 for his mahogany desk does not surprise me. Our dining table and hutch is made from mahogany and cost $28000 when brand new. We bought it used from the family who originally bought it and we paid nowhere near as much.
I think a lego desk would’ve been so much cooler!
posted by CK on 1-26-2009 at 6:30 pm
Wow… that stainless steel sofa would be the perfect accessory for my (extensive) Magnetic Poetry collection from college. I could make an anthology…
posted by Roger on 2-10-2009 at 5:01 pm
Cool stuff. I saw a much better link about the record breaking silk rug on rugrag
posted by brian on 3-20-2009 at 2:01 pm