Valentino left his estate to a foundation in Liechtenstein that the public had never heard of

Valentino Garavani was born in Voghera in 1932 and founded his house on Rome's Via Condotti in 1959. Giancarlo Giammetti ran the business side. In 1998 the two men sold the house for about $300 million. Valentino retired in 2008. The company is now 70 percent owned by Qatar's Mayhoola and 30 percent by Kering. He died at home in Rome on 19 January 2026, aged 93. He never married and had no children. His will was lodged with a notary in Gstaad, Switzerland, on 29 March 2023 and filed in Italy two days after his death. It names one heir: the Valentino Garavani and Giancarlo Giammetti Foundation, based in Vaduz, Liechtenstein, an entity not previously known to the public. The foundation formally accepted the estate on 15 April 2026. The will also makes a series of bequests. Reports name Giammetti, the former model Bruce Hoeksema, Sean and Anthony Sax, sons of his collaborator Carlos Souza, and Piero Villani as beneficiaries, without amounts. The executors are Giammetti, the trustee Ronald Feijen and the Swiss lawyer Marc Bonnant. The estate, estimated at about €1.5 billion, includes a 30-room villa on the Appian Way, a chalet in Gstaad, the Château de Wideville near Paris, bought in 1995, the 46-metre yacht TM Blue One, and works by Picasso and Warhol.