Money, Honey

Get It.

The Broke Billionaire

“Right now, in my home office, is a box filled with gold and silver coins that’s too heavy to lift ... and that’s just treasure we pulled out of the sea in the last couple of months,” Barry Clifford says with no brag, just fact. He pauses, then chuckles, admitting that he normally doesn’t keep it there, adding: “I probably ought to put that someplace a little safer.”

The 60-year-old Massachusetts native has recovered more than 100,000 artifacts, including more than 14,000 gold and silver coins and bars, from the pirate ship Whydah, sunk in 1717 off what now is Wellfleet, Mass. That amounts to a fortune that could make him incalculably rich, but the former football coach and carpenter is rather cavalier toward his booty. Maybe it’s because the treasure he’s brought to the surface since discovering the wreck in 1984 represents only a fraction of the hoard the Whydah was carrying. “Only eight of the 180 pirates aboard survived the wreck ... and they were taken to trial in Boston,” he says. “One of the pirates talked about how 4 1/2 tons of treasure was taken off of just one ship ... and that was out of more than 50 [ships] they captured.” The treasure is incredibly diverse--from coins minted shortly before the shipwreck to coins dating back to Christopher Columbus’ patrons, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella, gold Akan jewelry from West Africa and silver from Potosi, Bolivia.

In fact, just a few weeks ago, Clifford may have solved the mystery of where the rest of the treasure is located. The Massachusetts governor’s salvage expert at the time of the wreck reported that the ship flipped upside down on a sandbar 1,500 feet from the Wellfleet shore. Clifford and his team discovered a row of 15 cannons, which he believes were ballast in the bottom of the ship. If the ship flipped, the cannons would have crashed through the middle decks. “We now believe that the treasure is under the cannons

Most incredible of all, Clifford (who grew up on Cape Cod dreaming of finding the Whydah, long a local legend) will never spend a cent of the treasure. Though his Expedition Whydah Sea-Lab & Learning Center is a private company, he’s committed to making the treasure available to the public in a permanent exhibition at the Learning Center’s pirate museum in Provincetown, Mass.

“I don’t think my company has paid me a salary in 15 years,” he laughs. “Because every cent we have goes into continuing the excavation. We’ve been so broke at times, we’ve been sitting here on a pile of gold eating cat food and pretending it was tuna fish.” --KB

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Space Age

“They just came and knocked on our door.”

That’s how 29-year-old MySpace.com President Tom Anderson says he learned of Rupert Murdoch’s interest in acquiring the popular website he co-founded with Chief Executive Chris DeWolfe, 39. The $580-million deal should close by mid-October.

Los Angeles-based MySpace took off after Anderson came to DeWolfe, then his boss at Xdrive Technologies, with a concept for an online social hub that allows visitors to create and view personal profiles while amassing a networked list of friends. They hired eight employees to develop the site, persuaded a company called Intermix to invest, and grew the site from there. Now with a 120-person staff, MySpace is one of the information superhighway’s busiest stops, targeting the sought-after 16-to-34-year-old demographic and boasting some 28 million registered members.

When News Corp. approached, the two partners couldn’t refuse. DeWolfe says he’s “always had a lot of respect for News Corp. It’s an entrepreneurial company, and Rupert Murdoch fosters the entrepreneurial mentality.” Despite the pending takeover, DeWolfe says “the spirit of everyone working here is still fundamentally the same. It still seems like a small company.”

So what do the guys plan to do with their newfound fortune? Anderson and DeWolfe insist that becoming rich hasn’t caused them to splurge. They had a nice dinner together. They work more. And, Anderson relates, “I asked my mom if she wanted a house, but she said no.”--AB

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Screenwriting: Lotto Odds

In 1998 Kyle Long moved to California from Virginia intending to write movies. He’d taken a few creative writing classes while at the University of Richmond and wanted to know if he could make a name for himself in Hollywood.

That leap of faith appears to be paying off. After writing and selling three films that were never made--they’re “floating around in development hell,” Long says--he’s finally sold a script that may actually become a movie. It’s called “Flight Risk,” and its plot follows a young man assigned to drive an 11-year-old boy across the country. As Long describes it, “It’s ‘Midnight Run’ with a kid.”

He submitted the script on spec to Walt Disney Pictures. The studio liked Long’s family-friendly action comedy and plunked down $200,000 for it, with another $200,000 promised when the film makes it to theaters. A tentative release date is set for 2007.

When Long arrived in L.A. seven years ago, he nabbed a temp job at the Writers Guild, where he learned the ins and outs of the screenwriting business. Through the guild, he met industry scribes such as Josh Friedman, who recently adapted H.G. Wells’ “War of the Worlds” for Steven Spielberg.

Long and Friedman became friends, and the established writer hired the newcomer as a development deal assistant. As it turned out, Friedman didn’t have many deals in the works, so Long was left with plenty of free time, which he used to hone his screenwriting skills.

Long hasn’t seen his first check for “Flight Risk” yet, but he doesn’t plan to overindulge once the cash is in the bank. The son of an accountant and a legal librarian, Long says it’s “good money to me, but in Hollywood it’s nothing.” -- AB

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Save It.

A Strongbox

Adam Blackman, co-owner of the la Cienega Boulevard antiques emporium Blackman Cruz, has a thing for 18th and 19th century strongboxes. “I’m only interested in the ones that actually work,” he says. “Some of the lock mechanisms on the old boxes are really intricate. These were made before the age of mass production, when locksmiths literally made every part and screw by hand.”

One of the strongboxes Blackman currently has for sale is a mid- to late-19th century stagecoach iron strongbox with iron strapping. It measures 2 feet by 2 feet by 18 inches. The box sells for a relatively modest $2,500, while the rarer boxes that Blackman acquires from dealers back East--studded boxes with lock mechanisms so intricate that a locksmith must teach you how to open them--can go for as much as $12,000.

“Some of them were bolted to the stagecoach, though I think if they were filled with gold, they were probably impossible to move ... and if you didn’t know how to work the lock, there was no way to get them open,” says Blackman, considering a 19th century thief’s conundrum. “So I think the only option was just blow the thing up.” --KB

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This Little Piggy

There are several competing legends regarding he origin of the piggy bank. One of the oldest has it that in the Middle Ages potters used a clay called “pygg” to make jars in which valuable commodities such as salt and oil were stored. Even after the use of pygg clay ceased, jars used to store valuables such as coins continued to be called pygg jars.

A somewhat more grisly theory is that just as pigs ate their masters’ table scraps, pig jars were created to hold scraps of money--e.g., the odd penny or other coin. When the pig was sufficiently fattened and unable to absorb another scrap, down came the ax.

The piggy bank is not exclusive to Western cultures. For centuries, the Chinese gave porcelain pig banks to their children to teach them how to save. In addition, the pig banks served a symbolic function: In Chinese folklore, pigs are the guardians of children. --KB

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Home Security

“Well, it’s not the easiest thing to get to,” says Mr. X of his well-concealed floor safe. For obvious reasons, Mr. X asked that we not use his name or address. Suffice it to say that his modest Westside midcentury home gives no hint that a secret vault resides beneath one of its cabinets.

“First you have to move a bench, then lift a cushion, and then you have to pull a drawer out of a cabinet. At the bottom of the cabinet is a metal door, and you have to remove that to get to the top of the safe, which is about 18 inches farther down. It’s pretty awkward ... you have to climb inside the cabinet to get to it.”

The safe is an 18-by-8-by-36-inch rectangle set in concrete attached to the house’s foundation. The opening is a foot square, and the solid metal door is unsealed by a twist combination lock and a metal handle.

“There’s not all that much in there,” says Mr. X. “I have some personal treasures I’ve collected. It’s mostly that it’s a lot more interesting than having a safety deposit box. As a kid I always wanted my own personal bat cave ... so I guess this is a version of that.” --KB

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Blow It.

Power Hungry

Ok, so you made a 5,000% profit on your two-bedroom Chatsworth ranch house. You still can’t afford to upgrade to a three bedroom anywhere between Bakersfield and El Cajon, so what to do with that big pile of cash?

A car, of course. And not just any old run-of-the-mill $440,000 Porsche Carrera GT Cabriolet or Mercedes SLR McLaren for a measly $450,000.

No, what you want is the new Bugatti Veyron.

More than 100 years ago an automotive visionary named Ettore Bugatti began creating vehicles that were a blend of power and artistic design. Unfortunately, Bugatti’s company was undone by his creation of the world’s ultimate luxury car--the Royale, an eight-cylinder, 300-horsepower beauty--that was introduced just in time for the Depression. Only three were sold. A few years after World War II, the company ceased to exist.

In 1998, Volkswagen acquired the Bugatti name and this month is releasing the extraordinary EB Veyron 16.4 (Pierre Veyron was one of Bugatti’s more successful racers), a 16-cylinder sports car with 1,001 horsepower, making it the most powerful production sports car in the world. And in true Bugatti tradition, the Veyron is as beautiful a beast as ever ate up the asphalt.

Prospective buyers can contact one of four VW dealers in the U.S. slated to carry the Veyron (deliveries will be made in California, Connecticut and Florida), plunk down a $360,000 deposit and then wait a year for delivery, at which time the balance of the $1.2-million price is due. --KB

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Like a Princess

A mere $300,000 will buy the tiara Madonna wore when she married British film director Guy Ritchie. Guilt-free. The purchase money will go to charity--some of it even to a charity of the buyer’s choice. All it takes is a few clicks at www.jewelsforcharity.org or a call to the website’s sponsor, the Kazanjian Foundation. The nonprofit has existed since 1957, when it grew out of the Kazanjian family’s Beverly Hills-based estate jewelry company. The Kazanjian Foundation’s Jewels for Charity program solicits tax-deductible donations from those who want to convert their baubles to good works.

Also available from the Kazanjian Foundation is a $12,000 gold-and-diamond collar, a $3,000 jeweled necklace and a $5,000 gold-and-sapphire money clip, each with a Hollywood pedigree linked to such names as Cary Grant, Howard Hughes and Clark Gable. Still, the tiara is the piece de resistance. How else can you indulge in 78 carats and feel good about it? --AB

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Waterworld

Those with aquanaut dreams will dive at the chance to immerse themselves in L. Bruce Jones’ $52-million project: the Poseidon Undersea Resort. Slated to open late next year, much of Poseidon will be beneath the ocean’s surface 150 feet off the Bahamian shore. The capsule-like Deep Suite will be attached 1,000 feet down a 6,000-foot seawall and, for $20,000 a night, will provide unparalleled views through acrylic windows. Access to the Deep Suite will be via submarine. Closer to the surface at 60 feet, the resort will offer a 1,600-square-foot Grand Poseidon Suite for $5,000 a night, and for $1,500, guests can choose one of 20 550-square-foot suites. Cheaper still, 22 $500-a-night bungalows will perch on shore. Although this option won’t allow for sleeping with the fishes, land-bound guests will still enjoy dining at an undersea revolving restaurant or snuggling up in the private library with a favorite Jules Verne book--while taking in a 90-degree sea-floor view.

Jones, whose engineer parents both worked on offshore drilling platforms, used his 20 years’ experience in subsea technology to convince investors that his plan was viable. He’s already deluged with reservation requests, but says he won’t begin accepting them until next summer. Although anticipating a five-star rating for his liquid world, Jones has tried to design with the upscale traveler’s budget in mind. “By keeping it small and employing people with the right technical expertise,” he says, “we’ve been able to keep it affordable.” --AB