Business Success
The Perth-based Bond made his fortune initially in property development and at one time was one of Australia's most prominent businesspeople. In 1970 he bought three America's Cup bid yachts from Sir Frank Packer. He later extended his business interests into other fields including brewing (he controlled Castlemaine Tooheys and G. Heileman Brewing Company in La Crosse, Wisconsin, USA), gold mining, television, and airships. Australia's first private university, Bond University, bears his name.
He purchased QTQ-9, Brisbane and settled an outstanding defamation dispute the station had with the Queensland premier, Joh Bjelke-Petersen by paying out A$400,000. He said in a television interview several years later that he paid because "Sir Joh left no doubt that if we were going to continue to do business successfully in Queensland then he expected the matter to be resolved".
In 1987, Bond purchased Vincent van Gogh's renowned painting, Irises, for $54 million—the highest price ever paid for a single painting. However the purchase was funded by a substantial loan from the auctioneer, Sotheby's, which Bond failed to repay. The transaction was criticised by art dealers as possibly a manipulated sale designed to artificially inflate values generally (which it seems to have done). The painting was subsequently re-sold in 1990 to the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles.
Also in 1987, he built and developed the Bond Center in Hong Kong. It was later bought by the Lippo group of Indonesia and is now known as the Lippo Centre, Hong Kong.
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