The new aristocrats of power

THIS AUTUMN “Downton Abbey”, a film based on the British television series, will be released and audiences will once more be transported back to the days when a powerful elite was surrounded by subservient staff who catered to their every need. But the modern versions of Lord and Lady Grantham are in the headlines every day. Chief executives are today’s aristocracy. Chauffeurs ferry them around and private jets whisk them overseas. The best chefs provide the meals in their corporate dining rooms.

Corporate headquarters are the modern equivalent of country estates, spreading over prime acreage in Silicon Valley or dominating the skylines of New York and London. Walls are decorated with fashionable art, rather as the aristocracy used to hang a Canaletto or Rembrandt in the drawing room.