HOWTO decorate like a Mafia boss

Nicola Schiavone is the recently jailed Camorra mafioso. His Naples home was photographed by the Italian tax police who raided it. It's quite an eyefull of Mafia-chic strangeness. The Guardian has the story.

Criminal? Italian mafia interior tastes exposed - in pictures

I write books. My latest is a YA science fiction novel called Homeland (it's the sequel to Little Brother). More books: Rapture of the Nerds (a novel, with Charlie Stross); With a Little Help (short stories); and The Great Big Beautiful Tomorrow (novella and nonfic). I speak all over the place and I tweet and tumble, too.

MORE: crime • design • housewares • italy • photos

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niktemadur

First thing that pops to mind here is a derogatory term, nouveau riche.
- Antinous / Moderator
  
  That thing in the middle of the coffee table is his pinky ring.
- http://disqus.com/Kimmoth/ Kimmo
  
  Hmm… if you made me revoltingly rich tomorrow, you’d find more style than this guy has in my fingernail clippings.
  
  Maybe someone who can have folks killed at the drop of a hat is a bit less likely to receive constructive criticism…
  - retepslluerb
    
    Dunno. Pres. Obama seems to be pretty open to suggestions.
    - niktemadur
      
      … and every other previous president. Yet the White House always seems to be “tastefully appointed”. For some reason, that combination of terms in quotes gives me the giggles, sorta like “luncheon meats”.
http://twitter.com/fossilfuels Funk Daddy

With even a drop of alcohol or other in my system, finding my way to and from that toilet would involve several falls and possibly induce vomiting.
- awjt
  
  I was totally disoriented by it and nearly vomited pon my screen.
NordicNinja

The giant face mosaic is also in the front lobby of my apartment building. Weird to see it elsewhere.
jwkrk

The bathroom filled with video static is just disturbing.
- sam1148
  
  “The bathroom was the color digital television tuned to a dead channel”
  - Andrew Singleton
    
    An unsettling shade of poisoned silver perhaps?
- Brood-X
  
  what else would you use as background for a bidet?
- niktemadur
  
  Just remembered something the late, great Lee Hazlewood said about his home in Arizona.
  
  “I put all my gold records in the guest bathroom’s wall, so when people went in and flipped the switch, the room lit up gold. Many of them came out of there with their business still in their hand, going ‘My God!’”
  
  But that was something else entirely, an wonderful eccentricity.
  - Warren_Terra
    
    Putting your awards in the bathroom also has the advantage that anyone visiting the house is likely to have to spend some time in the room alone with the evidence of their host’s success. There are other places in the house a visitor can’t miss (I know a Nobelist whose medal is the only thing in their entryway, in a big presentation box), but noplace else in the house can the guest be expected to linger with no distractions.
RJ

It’s been said that the way a person keeps their house reflects their psyche. If that’s true, then this guy is about as classy as a “casting couch” movie.
sam1148

It needs a mini-giraffe
Adrian

A Lladro nativity scene . . . why am I not surprised?
- niktemadur
  
  Although for the full-on effect, a Lladro crucifix would have been… simply awesome.
Ashley Yakeley

I’m loving the silver/navy chair with the sun/moon/note /heart etc.
Ashley Yakeley

I’m loving the silver/navy chair with the sun/moon/note /heart etc.
BombBlastLightingWaltz

Tacky is not lost on the italian underworld.
Oskar_Gruchen

Putting the “roman” in neuromancer
Oskar_Gruchen

Putting the “roman” in neuromancer
robuluz

Its not to my taste, but I get it. “Go big or go fuck yourself”.

I think it works.

I’d be happier there than in a new build with cheap mass produced ‘Ye Olden Days’ style decor. At least this place knows what it is.
- Oskar_Gruchen
  
  “Bad taste is real taste, of course, and good taste is the residue of someone else’s privilege”
  - noah django
    
    nailed it, sir. everybody’s taking their shots, but I guarantee there is nothing remarkable about their homes. and everytime there’s a steampunk post or geeky, ironic 3D printed object post, they probably crowd the comments with accolades. man, whatever. this cat was probably a deplorable human being, but his crib is fully macked-out; and if you can’t get that, get the bozak.
  - niktemadur
    
    Quote by art critic Dave Hickey. A deep quote, food for thought and grounds for further research (introspection).
    
    This type of kitsch might be cool, if it didn’t have the stigma of being almost exclusively associated to greedy, needy and paranoid sociopaths, even as the style screams out “Here I am, come and get me!”, or in Scarface parlance, “Take a good look at the bad guy!”
robuluz

Its not to my taste, but I get it. “Go big or go fuck yourself”.

I think it works.

I’d be happier there than in a new build with cheap mass produced ‘Ye Olden Days’ style decor. At least this place knows what it is.
Warren_Terra

William Langewiesche had an incredible article in Vanity Fair about the Camorra. This Nicola Schiavone character figured heavily as a sort of stupider, crasser version of Sonny Corleone: the younger-generation spoiled brat with no common sense, no constraints, and no sense of decency.
http://imcravingpresidency.tumblr.com/ SedanChair

After watching Erik Gandini’s sensational documentary Videocracy (NSFW), I would venture to say that if this is Mafia decor, then every powerful and famous person in Italy is in the Mafia. They uh, don’t really do the whole “understatement” thing.
- Wreckrob8
  
  In the German north and the Roman/Greek (?) south?
http://lemoutan.blogspot.com/ Lemoutan

Said it before, and’ll say it again – 3d modelling software’s much too easy to get.
niktemadur

Tune in next week for more surprises, here on Donald Trump Home Makeovers.
loroferoz

Camorra is not Mafia. They are organized crime modalities and organizations from Southern Italy alright. But as far as I know… They are different and with completely different origins. Even in these days they are different from each other.
tripplevee

No, no, no. It’s all wrong, there isn’t any plastic on the furniture.
tripplevee

No, no, no. It’s all wrong, there isn’t any plastic on the furniture.
http://aqfl.net Ant

Ugly.