Aleksandra Melnichenko

Aleksandra Melnichenko (born 1977) is the wife of Russian businessman Andrey Melnichenko who has a personal wealth of $10.1 billion and in 2016 ranked 139th in the Forbes World's billionaires list (11th in Russia).

Early life

Born Sandra Nikolić in Belgrade, Serbia to a Serbian father and Croatian mother, Sandra was educated at the Eleventh Belgrade Gymnasium, prior to enrolling in the Faculty of International Management in Belgrade. Her father was an architect and her mother was an artist.

Career

At the age of 15, Aleksandra was encouraged to become a fashion model. She travelled with her parents to Milan, Paris and London where she modelled for a number of fashion houses.

Aged 17 she was a founding member of Models, a Serbian manufactured 1990s pop group. Over the following five years, Models released several albums.

In 1998, Aleksandra returned to modeling work and by 1999 was signed by model agencies that included Riccardo Gay and Traffic. She spent the next four years working out of Milan and Barcelona on a number of advertising campaigns in the print media and on television.

Personal life

Aleksandra met Andrey Melnichenko in the South of France in 2003. They married in a lavish wedding in September 2005 on the Cote D’Azur. Whitney Houston and Christina Aguilera performed at the event. Jennifer Lopez was paid $2 million to play at her 30th birthday party.

Art Collection

Aleksandra and her husband Andrey Melnichenko own two works from Claude Monet's "Water Lilies" series and a number of pieces of 18th century furniture. They took legal action over the height of a sculpture they purchased for £423,000 claiming it was half the size they expected it to be. The sculpture is entitled Sonno Grande (Big Sleep) by Polish artist Igor Mitoraj and should have been over seven foot tall according to the Melnichenkos. The sculpture that was delivered was under four feet in height. The Melnichenkos sued through the Isle of Man based art company Hamilton Art Ltd, New York art dealer David Benrimon who supplied it. He was sued for £2.6 million in damages for breach of contract and fraud. Benrimon has reached a settlement with the Melnichenkos.

The "A" Yacht

See also: A (yacht)

Aleksandra and Andrey Melnichenko own a yacht designed by Philip Starck which reportedly cost more than $300 million to build, boasts nearly 24,000 square feet of living space, employs a crew of at least 35 and contains a master suite encased in bomb-proof 44 millimeter glass. As of August 2016 the yacht has been reported to be on sale.

The A yacht has been specially approved as a quarantine facility to allow Aleksandra's Maltese dog, Vala, to go straight on board.