Robert Charles Joseph Edward Sabatini Guccione was an American photographer and publisher who lived from December 17, 1930, until his death on October 20, 2010. In 1965, he started the controversial adult magazine Penthouse.
With more overtly sensual material, a unique style of soft-focus photography, and in-depth reporting on government corruption scandals and the art world, this aspired to compete with Hugh Hefner’s Playboy. By 1982, Guccione had one of Manhattan’s most opulent residences and was featured on Forbes’ 400 list of the richest Americans.
But he made some risky ventures that didn’t pan out, and the advent of free online pornography in the ’90s seriously cut into his business. Guccione resigned as chairman and the publishing company declared bankruptcy in 2003.
Bob Guccione Net Worth
American publisher, photographer, and art collector Bob Guccione was once worth an estimated $400 million. Bob Guccione was most famous as the creator and publisher of Penthouse. To go up against Playboy, Penthouse was first released in England in 1965 and in North America two years later in 1969.
Penthouse featured articles about government corruption, cover-ups, and scandals. Bob shot the majority of the models for the first few issues of Penthouse. Guccione’s living in his Manhattan mansion was quieter than Hugh Hefner’s. The yearly upkeep on the lavish property, with its 30 rooms, was a whopping $5 million.
Properties and Investments
Guccione’s lavish spending became a source of public ridicule as Penthouse’s prominence grew over the years. He bought a 30-room, 22,000-square-foot estate on the Upper East Side of Manhattan, which at the time was the largest private residence in the area.
In 2003, the mansion’s major creditor initiated foreclosure proceedings due to the owner’s financial difficulties. A convoluted chain of events led to a group of investors agreeing to buy the estate for $26 million in cash and letting Bob stay there for just $1 per year.
The property was sold to investor Philip Falcone for $49 million in 2009, a year before his death. In addition to his New Jersey residence, Guccione also had a 75-acre estate in Staatsburg, New York. This house went for $4 million the month he passed away.
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The luxurious resort Haludovo Palace Hotel on the coast of Yugoslavia was built with over $45 million in funding from him. After debuting in 1972, the resort unfortunately went bankrupt the following year.
Malcolm McDowell played the title role of the hedonistic Roman Emperor in the 1976 sexual historical film “Caligula,” which Guccione financed with an investment of $17.5 million.
Guccione and Giancarlo Lui shot real sex sequences for the film, which came out in 1979, despite the objections of the film’s director and writer. Over the years, Guccione kept investing recklessly and squandering a ton of money.
He lost $160 million on his bet on the never-built Penthouse Boardwalk Hotel and Casino on Atlantic City’s boardwalk, and he also lost a lot of money on a nuclear fusion facility that was never built.
Art Collection
Throughout his life, Guccione accumulated an impressive collection of artwork, including pieces by Modigliani, Picasso, El Greco, Degas, Botticelli, Matisse, Renoir, Pissarro, and Dal. Sotheby’s held an auction for this collection in 2002.
The sale only made $19 million, $40 million less than the auction house had projected due to the weak art market following the 9/11 terrorist attacks. Guccione utilized the funds to settle some of his own debts. In 2012, businessman Jeremy Frommer purchased Guccione’s personal collection of artwork and memorabilia.
Other Endeavors
Guccione established the periodicals Omni, Viva, and Longevity, among other works. He was a painter as well as a collector; his work has been displayed in the Nassau County Museum of Art and the Butler Institute of American Art, among others.
Personal Life and Death
Four times Guccione tied the knot. He had a daughter named Tonina with his first wife, Lilyann Becker, whom he wed while he was just a teenager. Guccione left Becker because of the problems in their marriage and went to Europe. There, in 1966, he tied the knot with Muriel Hudson, a Brit.
They married, had four kids, then split up in 1979. Kathy Keeton, a South African native who Guccione began dating and ultimately married in 1988, passed away in 1997 due to complications arising from surgery.
Ex-model April Dawn Warren was rumored to have been Keeton’s personal choice to succeed Guccione as his fourth and final wife. Guccione and Warren tied the knot in 2006 after a lengthy courtship.
Guccione, a lifelong smoker, had throat cancer in 2004 and had surgery to remove the tumor. He lost his battle with lung cancer in 2010 and passed away shortly thereafter. He lived to be 79 years old.
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