In part one of this piece, we introduced Lloyd’s of London, the most venerable and storied insurance carrier anywhere in the world, with a reputation for insuring anything and everything going all the back to the 17th century. Here is part 2 of that list of the most notable insurance policies ever issued by Lloyd’s of London:
Expensive rocks and art:
Expensive rocks and art:
Lloyd’s insures plenty of expensive
jewelry and precious stones, but none more magnificent – and expensive –than
the Taylor-Burton diamond. Purchased by actor Richard Burton for his love
interest, Elizabeth Taylor in the 69.42 carat, inch-thick Cartier diamond was
worth $1.1 million.
The story goes that one time,
Burton inadvertently insulted the appearance of Taylor’s hands, after which she
demanded the diamond to make up for the slight. ‘That insult last night is
going to cost me,’ Burton wrote in his diary.
Lloyd’s did insure the diamond but
had conditions, such as that Taylor could only wear it for 30 days or less
every year in public, and she always had to be accompanied by security guards
when she wore it.
When a jeweler in Wilmington, North
Carolina offered to refund $50,000 of customer sales if it snowed more than 3
inches on Christmas Day only in nearby Asheville, North Carolina, he also
backed up his claim with a Lloyd’s policy. It snowed 8 inches that Christmas,
and he was collected on the claim.
The most famous artwork in the best
museums and galleries in the world are also covered, but one cautionary tale
revolves around the legendary Leonardo da Vinci cartoon of the Virgin and Child
at the National Gallery. When a crank caller threatened the cartoon, Lloyd’s underwriters
mandated that the priceless cartoon be protected by Perspex sheeting. That
request was out of the ordinary in the art world but paid off big, when not
long after, a German tourist threw a bottle of ink at the cartoon on display,
attempting to destroy it. But the ink got no further than the Perspex protected
it, vindicating Lloyd’s and saving the art.
Famous palettes:
Lloyd’s of London even insures the senses and palettes of
famous food and wine connoisseurs, like food critic Egon Ronay, whose taste
buds are insured for $400,000.
World-renowned restaurant critic
Egon Ronay insured his palate with Lloyd’s for several hundred thousand dollars.
When you are charged with tasting
coffee for an industry giant like Costa Coffee, you’ll want an insurance policy
on your sense for $10 million, like famous taster Gennaro Pelliccia has.
Dutch winemaker Ilja Gort, out of
Bordeaux, France, insured his nose for $8 million through Lloyd's in 2008.
Reportedly, Gort’s nose can discern millions of different scents and as a
condition of his policy, he can’t endanger himself by participating in winter
sports, boxing, or fire breathing.
Voices and musicians:
Plenty of musical stars have
insured their voices and playing abilities, starting with starlet Marlene
Dietrich, who insured her iconic voice for $1 million.
To ensure he never gets injured and
can’t keep playing guitar, Keith Richards of the Rolling Stones insured his
hands for $1.6 million with Lloyd’s.
Bruce Springsteen’s insured his voice
for 3.5 million Pounds.
Gene Simmons, lead singer of KISS
who is known for his painted face and alarmingly long tongue, insured that
asset back in the 1970s for $1 million.
Safe bets?
In decades past, insuring against a
wedding being canceled due to a natural disaster illness, death, or terrorist
attack may have been out of the realm of believability. However, these days,
with the average cost of a wedding nearing $30,000 in the U.S., wedding
insurance with Lloyd’s of London has grown more commonplace. They even have
insurance coverage against a bride or groom left standing at the altar!
A couple in Michigan insured
themselves against having twins – and collected on the policy when they indeed
birthed twins! But even crazier, they insured themselves again when pregnant a
second tie, and had a second set of twins! I think even Lloyd’s is probably
reticent to insure them in the future!
The TV show, "Who Wants To Be
A Millionaire," has taken out an insurance policy against the possibility
of multiple million-dollar winners in a row, which could put them out of
business.
Employers can actually take out
insurance policies against their employees winning the lottery on a shared
ticket, which might result in a good portion of their employees all quitting on
the same day.
Insuring famous hair:
Legendary Vegas singer Tom Jones
insured his chest hair for $7 million, claiming that displaying it prominently
was part of his act.
Forty members of the Derbyshire
Whiskers Club insured their beards against fire damage…or theft!
Brady White, who is the
professional Santa Claus stand-in every Christmas time at Macy’s, insured his
white beard with Lloyd’s.
If you’ve seen him in Head and
Shoulders commercials, then it’s no surprise that ex-NFL standout Troy Polamalu
insures his curly locks for $1 million.
Just plain weird and bizarre:
Few insurance policies could be
more obscure than attempted by iconic movie director Stanley Kubrick, who tried
to take out an insurance policy with Lloyd’s in the event that his movie,
‘2001: A Space Odyssey’ flopped because extraterrestrial life was discovered
before his movie premiered. Although it seems like easy premiums for Lloyd’s
for whatever reason, they refused.
You can take out an insurance
policy in case you die or are injured from a coconut falling and hitting you in
the head! In fact, about 150 people a year all over the world meet their maker
that way. And a UK travel company did take out a policy on its clients, so when
a tourist was hit on the head while visiting Sri Lanka, they had to pay out,
though she did live and was fine.
When Hollywood was first blossoming
thanks to the new moving pictures industry in the early 1900s, a movie company
once took out an insurance policy with Lloyd’s in event that theater audiences literally
died of laughter.
In the 1970s, the Scottish whisky
maker Cutty Sark offered a $1.5 million reward for anyone who caught the
legendary Loch Ness Monster. The company actually took out an insurance policy
with Lloyd’s in the event that someone did find it, though the monster had to
be at least 20-feet long and verified as the real thing by the National History
Museum.
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