There have always been charges of excess in the art world, and Dakis Joannou has a simple answer to them: Guilty. Docked in Athens? Piraeus Port, his irreverently named 115-foot luxury craft is a fantastical collaboration between superstar American artist Jeff Koons and Italian yacht designer Ivana Porfiri. Although the colorful exterior brings to mind the Pop paintings of Roy Lichtenstein, Guilty? s bold geometric designs?alternating yellow rhombuses, pink triangles and blue polygons?were actually inspired by British naval camouflage from World War I. But there is no hiding the 72-year-old Greek-Cypriot industrialist?s super-yacht?it is a floating piece of art.

To Joannou, one of the world?s most important contemporary art collectors, what matters most about Guilty is that it provokes a reaction. ?We did what we wanted; style was irrelevant,? he says of his maritime masterpiece. ?We designed a boat in an antistyle method. We have no rules, no programs, no plans.? Porfiri worked with him to get every element of functionality in place before moving on to Koons? kaleidoscope design.

Razzle Dazzle, as the exterior pattern is called, ?was a technique used during World War I as a camouflage not to conceal an object but to confuse the viewer,? Koons explains. ?The process was extremely complex,? Joannou adds, noting that Guilty was painted by hand. ?Ivana sent the design to Jeff, and he did some 3-D designing in his studio. I did not interfere at all.?

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