Khurram Aziz email: k.aziz@mobilenapps.com
Steve Jobs' last contribution to the world of technology, a super-yacht worth over $130 million, is at the heart of a dispute with its designer, as Dutch authorities seized the vessel over unpaid bills.
A court in Amsterdam, where the boat called Venus was built, ordered bailiffs to impound the 230ft yacht following a request from designer Philippe Starck.
Jobs, who died last year from cancer, never got to use the yacht, which he helped design alongside Starck over the course of five years. The project was completed in October and bequeathed to Jobs' family and his estate.
Starck wanted €9 million for his contribution to the project but he claims he has only been paid €6 million.
"The project has been going since 2007 and there had been a lot of detailed talk between Jobs and Starck," Roelant Klaassen, a lawyer representing Starck told Reuters. "These guys trusted each other, so there wasn't a very detailed contract."
Venus is the last project from Jobs to see the light of day and bears all the hallmarks of his minimalist approach seen in products such as the iPod and iPad. It has a sleek all-white exterior with teak decks and large panes of ceiling-to-floor glass throughout and is said to be controlled by seven 27-inch iMacs on board.
The yacht was mentioned in the biography of Jobs written by Walter Isaacson following his death.
"I know that it's possible I will die and leave Laurene with a half-built boat. But I have to keep going on it. If I don't, it's an admission that I'm about to die," Isaacson quotes Jobs as saying of the boat.
Jobs' widow Laurene Powell Jobs and their three children Reed, Erin, and Eve were supposed to receive the boat in the U.S. The estate of the late Apple CEO has yet to comment on the case.
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