Dictators have always fussed over interior decor, the furniture and soft furnishings, the accoutrements, color schemes and wall art that say so much about a tyrant. No matter how much stolen money the despot spends on his gold taps and marble-lined mega-jacuzzi, the result always ends up looking cheap and hideous.
Nicolae Ceausescu, the last Communist ruler of Romania, favored gilded Balkan kitsch in his many palaces, interiors of mismatching charcoal and pink, leopard skin everywhere, rococo bathrooms with bizarre body-cleansing gadgets and gaudy chandeliers as big as cars.
