She has a gold-painted hull and a fully-functional onboard fireplace. Apart from those obvious attractions, 41-metre Stefania enjoys the benefits of great youth, is nearly brand-new with just 200 hours on her main engines, according to The Marine Executive. She was the winner of a BOAT Design & Innovation 2022 award.

However, her short past has been troubled. She was seized by the French judicial sale agency Agrasc (Agence de gestion et de recouvrement des avoirs saisis et confisqués) while moored, rather conspicuously, in Beaulieu-sur-Mer, as part of a money-laundering investigation into a so-far unnamed billionaire of Belarussian origins about whom nothing has been made public.

According to the very reliable The Marine Executive media outlet, Stefania was built by Dynamiq, a Monaco-based firm with a yard in Turkey, and delivered in 2021.

Her price? Originally listed at about $20 million, she is expected to fetch between $8 and $10 million. The auction is at 14:30 on January 25 on the helipad of the International Yacht Club in Antibes, with auction house De Baecque handling the sale on behalf of Agrasc and she is listed in the catalogue under the heading “So That Crime Does Not Pay.” Interested bidders will need to fork out 500,000 euros as a warrantee of seriousness.

MAIN SOURCES: https://maritime-executive.com/article/france-auctions-off-a-seized-yacht-with-a-golden-hull, https://www.debaecque.fr/en/news/95678