Oligarch's Greek island set to become €1m-a-week mega resort for elite

Sanctioned Russian oligarch’s £100 million Greek island once owned by Aristotle Onassis is set to become €1million-a-week mega resort for wealthy elite

• The island of Skorpios is located in the Ionian Sea off the west coast of Greece
• It was once the home of the late shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis
• Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev is hoping to transform it into a mega resort  

A sanctioned Russian oligarch’s £100million Greek island which was once owned by Aristotle Onassis is set to become a €1million-a-week mega resort for the wealthy elite.

Dmitry Rybolovlev has been plotting to transform the private island of Skorpios into a luxury resort featuring a helipad, a marina for super-yachts, a football pitch, horse stables and much more.

The ambitious project, entitled VIP Exclusive Club, was approved by the Greek government in December 2020 and is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2023, ready to welcome its first guests in the summer of 2024. 

Initially predicted to set the oligarch back around £200million, local media in Greece now report that the investment will topple £350million.

The Art Newspaper reports that there will be no more than 50 guests staying at a time who will each have to fork out up to €1million-a-week (£878,000) to holiday on the luxurious island located in the Ionian Sea off the west coast of Greece

AS Monaco owner and Russian oligarch Dmitry Rybolovlev (pictured centre with daughter Ekaterina, left) 

Oligarch Rybolovlev is understood to be plotting to transform the private island of Skorpios (pictured) into a luxury resort

The Greek island once owned by Aristotle Onassis is set to become a €1million-a-week mega resort for the wealthy elite. It will feature a five-a-side football pitch (pictured)

The ambitious project, entitled VIP Exclusive Club, was approved by the Greek government in December 2020

Rybolovlev, who has a net worth of £5.4billion, has been sanctioned by Ukraine over the brutal invasion by Russia, but he has not faced any punitive measures from the West. 

In fact, he has given large humanitarian aid donations to the Red Cross in a bid to distance himself from Putin’s invasion.

The private Greek island where Jackie Kennedy married Aristotle Onassis was sold in the summer of 2013 by Onassis’ granddaughter and sole heir, Athina Onassis Roussel, to Rybolovlev’s daughter Ekaterina for a price tag believed to be around £100million. 

It’s understood Rybolovlev’s company Mykinai SA has plans to build a small beach hotel with 12 rooms and nine properties with the residences believed to be built into the landscape so that they harmonise with their surroundings and offer privacy and scenic views of neighbouring islands.

The five-a-side football pitch will host small-scale sporting events too, while the amphitheatre will put on private concerts and performances. 

The luxury resort, said to only be accessible by boat or helicopter, will also feature tennis courts, restaurants and a spa.

The remote island is something of a fortress with only a drawbridge connecting the nearest public island of Lefkada to Preveza – where the only nearby airport lies.

It’s believed that the island will be heavily guarded by snipers and security cameras to ensure maximum security. 

There will be no more than 50 guests staying at a time who will have to fork out up to $1million-a-week to holiday on the luxurious island

It’s believed that the island will be heavily guarded by snipers and security cameras to ensure maximum security

Members of the Rybolovlev family will stay in Skorpios for certain periods, while it will be availbale to rent in the other months

The luxury resort, said to only be accessible by boat or helicopter, will also feature tennis courts, restaurants and a spa

Over the past few years, construction work has been taking place, including the maintenance and renovation of Onassis’ famed ‘Pink Villa’ – which Rybolovlev is still deciding whether to convert into a museum.

Construction workers who arrive by boat have their phones confiscated so that they cannot take photographs of anything. 

Members of the Rybolovlev family will stay in Skorpios for certain periods, while it will be available to rent in the other months, according to Greece Is.

Designed by Norwegian firm Snøhetta – the architecture firm behind the new embodiment of the Library of Alexandria in Egypt and the first underwater restaurant in Europe – the plans will also transform Skorpios into a ‘smart’ island courtesy of a new fibre optic network being installed.

‘The basic idea is to create a green island with the greatest possible use of its existing landscape, structure and incomparable beauty,’ Rybolovlev said in 2020.

‘Our family’s goal is to create the first luxury accommodation complex in Greece, located on a private island. It will be unique in the Mediterranean. At the same time, all works are being done very carefully and in complete harmony with the environment.’ 

Staggering photos supplied by Snøhetta highlight the scale of the project, while public satellite images show construction underway.

There are also plans to construct a multi-functional centre with the aim of playing attracting closed VIP conferences and offering ‘Davos-like’ services – the Swiss town which hosts the four-day global economic forum. 

Jacqueline Kennedy and Aristotle Onassis on their wedding day on Skorpios on October 20, 1968. The couple were married for six years before Aristotle passed away in 1975 aged 69, at which point Jackie returned to New York

Rybolovlev is still deciding whether to convert the famed ‘Pink Villa’ into a museum or keep it as a residence

Still widely known among the Greek people as ‘the island of Onassis’, the once nearly-barren sanctuary is heavily forested with over 200 varieties of trees – imported by Aristotle – and features the odd luxury detail, including tennis courts and a boat quay.

Onassis also shipped in sand from neighbouring Salamis Island to create an artificial beach called East Beach, while Jackie O had a small Cyclades-style cottage built in a quiet cove.

Numerous high profile guests stayed on Skorpios while Onassis lived there, including state leaders, actors and artists. It was here where Jackie was snapped naked by an Italian paparazzi photographer while lying on the beach in 1971.

The couple were married for six years before Aristotle passed away in 1975 aged 69, at which point Jackie returned to New York.

Skorpios was passed down to the Greek shipping tycoon’s daughter Christina, who died of a heart attack aged 37 in 1988. It then went to her daughter Athina. Aristotle was buried on Skorpios, as is his daughter and son Alexander, who died in a plane crash in 1973.

Rybolovleva bought Skorpios along with the adjacent islet of Sparti through her trust.

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