That Steve Jobs never got to enjoy his superyacht was disappointing enough, but now it doesn't look like anyone can. The late Apple CEO commissioned designer Philippe Starck to create the Venus, but the boat was impounded in Amsterdam this week because the Jobs estate allegedly stiffed Starck out of some €3 million ($3,960,300 US). Starck's lawyer told Reuters Friday that he received €6 million out of a €9 million commission he was owed. "The project has been going since 2007 and there had been a lot of detailed talk between Jobs and Starck," said the attorney. "These guys trusted each other, so there wasn't a very detailed contract." And €3 million between rich friends is a lot different than €3 million between estate lawyers.
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Starck had designed the ship's interiors, with production on the yacht completed this fall, a little over a year after Jobs died. And we could see where it all went — the Venus is awesome, and there's video. As our Adam Clark Estes reported late last month:
The front of the ship is equipped with a uniquely large sun deck with a jacuzzi built in. Behind that comes an all glass cabin that's topped with a bridge equipped with seven 27-inch iMacs that handle the ship's navigation and controls. When you take a step back, squint a little and turn your head to the left, it sort of looks like an iPhone 4 with the strip of windows around the middle and the clean lines.
Dealing with the rest of this mess now are the benefactors of the Jobs estate — his wife, Laurene Powell Jobs, and his children, Reed, Erin, and Eve. According to the designer's attorney, Jobs's family argued that Starck should be paid a percentage of the overall cost of the five-year project instead of the fixed $9 million Starck says was agreed upon.