The Story of Gunther, the $400 Million Dog Owner of Mansions, Yachts, and Luxury Cars

Generally speaking, a dog’s life can’t be unhappy with the right human. If you’re a dog person, you know what that’s like and have probably felt jealous of it at least once. Sleeping all day, going out for long walks and playdates at the park, getting treats and belly scratches – what’s there not to love? But here’s where Gunther would like a word, because it can be better than that.

Gunther is a German Shepherd that is often referred to as the richest dog in the world. He hails from Italy, but he lives all over the place, because he owns real estate in Italy, the Bahamas, the U.S., and Germany. He also owns at least one private plane, at least one yacht, a fancy collection of automobiles (one such collection at each mansion, we’re to understand), and is living the grand life most people can only dream of.

Gunther is actually a lineage of Gunthers, starting with Gunther III, who inherited between $80 million and $100 million from his human when she passed away in 1992. This is a heartwarming story about an eccentric countess and the pet she loved more than anything in life because she could not have children of her own, and it’s the start of a business model that could put real business people to shame.

Gunther is also one of the most elaborate and hilarious fake stories of modern times, a “ruse” is how they called it, and the subject of the latest Netflix docuseries. Gunther’s Millions, whose first trailer is available at the bottom of the page, premieres on the platform on February 1. It’s so intriguing that it warrants a deeper dive into Gunther’s story.

On the face of it, Gunther has been living the A-list life since 1992, the death of his beloved human notwithstanding. Countess Karlotte von Liebenstein had no children, apparently, so she bequeathed her fortune to Gunther, with the mention that it should pass down to his offspring when Gunther III died. Today, it’s Gunther V who’s getting to enjoy all those millions, though chances are the count is higher, to VI or even VII, since the fifth Gunther would have to be in his late 20s.

Gunther’s millions are handled through The Gunther Corporation, whose CEO he is – a trust set up by Maurizio Mian, whose partner, Carla Riccitelli, is the dog’s appointed handler. Every other year or so, Gunther makes international headlines: in 1999, he made an offer on Sylvester Stallone’s $30 million Miami estate; in 2021, he sold a mansion he had inherited from Gunther IV, who had bought it from Madonna; and before all this, in 2001, he showed up at an auction and bid on a $1.1 million truffle.

In between these highlights, Gunther is a globe-trotter, much like his human millionaire counterparts. He has a crew of almost 30 people always waiting on him hand and foot paw, including a personal chef, several personal assistants, walkers and groomers, a security detail, and, we assume, the regular celebrity hangers-on. He flies only private, is chauffeured around in the fanciest stretch limousines or vintage cars, and vacations on private yachts – his own, because he’s too rich to charter like peasants.

The Netflix trailer shows a glimpse of that luxurious life. There’s Gunther boarding a private plane and enjoying a gourmet meal onboard, and there he is getting off the same plane on the tarmac. That plane is a Bombardier CL-600-2B16 Challenger 601, and from what we can tell, it’s owned by a company that bears no relation to The Gunther Corp, but we’re to believe that it’s Gunther’s own.

There’s Gunther onboard the SPYK luxury yacht, one of the seven Akhir 34S models built by Cantieri di Pisa and delivered in 1999. It’s not the biggest or most expensive watercraft out there, with a total length of 108 feet (33 meters) and an 8-guest capacity, but then again, Gunther is a dog. Even a dinghy would be too much for a dog. That yacht was more recently listed for sale in Thailand for $2.5 million.

There’s Gunther flying in a Cessna 208B Grand Caravan EX and landing on water in some exotic locale, ahead of yet another vacation. That 2017 aircraft is owned by another leasing company with no apparent relation to the company Gunther fronts as CEO.

That’s because Gunther is a hoax. Maurizio Mian is an Italian eccentric slash pharmaceutical millionaire who created the legend of Gunther almost two decades ago and has provided enough contradicting statements over the years to keep it alive. In 1995, for instance, he clearly stated that neither Gunther nor the overly generous countess ever existed, only to go back on his words a few years later to say that they were both real, claiming that he lied because he’d been backed into a corner by the media. To Netflix, Mian says that Gunther is cloned, so there must be at least a pack of Gunthers roaming around, pretending to be multi-millionaires living enviable millionaire lives.

Based on older Italian media reports, it looks like Mian created Gunther and his incredible rags-to-riches riches-to-even-more-riches story as some sort of social experiment and PR stunt. On one hand, he was looking to create a theoretical framework for success, while on the other, he needed a story everyone would jump on whenever he had a new project to promote. Aside from his pharma background, which also includes creating a successful treatment for osteoporosis, Mian is also a talent agent of sorts, and The Gunther Corp is his platform.

That’s why Gunther the dog’s money, which is most likely Mian’s own money from his previous occupation as a pharma boss, is often funneled into music projects, club troupes, artists’ shows, to sponsor sporting events, and even to buy entire football clubs, like the Pontedera F.C. they bought in 2006. Meanwhile, Gunther, whoever he is and whatever the name he answers to, gets to pretend to be the millionaire influencers and instagrammers aspire to be one day, flashing broad smiles onboard luxury yachts, flying private like a boss, and being chauffeured around in vintage cars by handsome P.A.s who declare, with exactly zero shame, “I wanted to be a tick on that dog’s [butt] for the rest of my life.”

Long story short, the Tinder Swindler needs to take a couple of seats in the back. Gunther has been flexin’ for almost two decades, and it doesn’t look like he’s stopping anytime soon.